Boxing results and recaps, Nov. 5-10: Maxim Vlasov / Juan Carlos Reveco dominate, Predrag Radosevic escapes, Sofiane Takoucht wins Italian FOTY candidate

As discussed in my previous recap I will no longer be including descriptions of the undercard results I list unless I find them worth discussing or someone specifically asks what happened in a particular bout. It's also unlikely I will keep doing 2 recaps a week. Expect a Monday recap if I'm home for the weekend and a Wednesday recap if I'm attending an event live. I'll submit an especially detailed event recap that Saturday, Sunday, or Monday depending on if it's held on Friday or Saturday and how mainstream it is. The next card I will be press row for is headlined by Bryant Jennings vs Bowie Tupou. NBC Sports will televise that and I expect 2 undercard bouts (one involving Teon Kennedy).

But that's the future, time to discuss the past:

2012-11-05 Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan

Found the main event of this card on YouTube.

Rikki Naito TKO4 Meesuk Porsaman

In this super featherweight contest, scheduled for 8 rounds, undefeated southpaw prospect Naito was able to out box and out punch his game but overmatched opponent. Porsaman struggled to hit the slick Naito with anything as the 21 year old had too much speed, reflexes, and footwork to cope with. Although dominant in every round Naito didn't actually hurt Porsaman until the 4th after connecting with several straight left hands. Porsaman took many of the shots well but usually retreated afterward. At the end he remained stationary and Naito took the opportunity to dig to the body before coming back to the head. A final straight left hand staggered Porsaman back into the ropes and caused the ref to step in. Porsaman did not protest the stoppage. It is my personal opinion that Naito is one to watch in the future.

2012-11-05 Sports Palace Quant, Troitsk, Moscow, Russia

I know Russia TV 2 at least televised the main event but the rest of the card I watched via Boytsovskiy Klub.

Maxim Vlasov UD10 Khoren Gevor (100-90, 100-90, 99-91)

In the main event once beaten contender Vlasov defended his WBC Baltic super middleweight title against the ever fading Gevor, once a serious player at middleweight. Some years back Gevor gave Arthur Abraham one of his hardest fights at middleweight and arguably beat Felix Sturm. At super middleweight Gevor has however been far less impressive, despite still giving Robert Stieglitz the business before a disgraceful disqualification by the referee. The super middleweight version of Gevor is undersized and age seems to be catching up with him. Gevor fought in spurts against Vlasov and wasn't usually very clean or effective with his shots. Vlasov defended against Gevor's flurries well then came back with cleaner and more damaging punches from the outside when Gevor took his foot off the gas.

Americans most likely remember Vlasov from his 2011 ESPN Friday Night Fights war with Isaac Chilemba. Vlasov had Chilemba down twice in the 8th round but ultimately lost a close and debatable decision. Both Chilemba and Vlasov are solid up and coming fighters that I could easily see winning world titles someday.

Alisher Rahimov UD10 Michal Dufek [vacant WBC Baltic lightweight title]

Ilshat Khusnulgatin UD6 Sergey Akimov

Aik Shakhnazaryan UD4 Dmitry Lavrinenko

Bahruz Kazimov SD4 Akhmed Dzaurov

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2012-11-09 Marina Bay Sands Hotel, Singapore, Singapore

FOX Sports Australia televised the full card. Usually I don't recap any card Scott Christ already covered the main event for but at the time I wrote this he had yet to do so. However, since Scott didn't see most of the undercard, I can let you know more about a specific result if you ask.

Chris John UD12 Chonlatarn Piriyapinyo (117-111, 119-109, 119-109)

In the first two rounds Piriyapinyo simply didn't open up at all but by the third the Thai picked up the pace but was taken to school for his troubles. As he continued to pick it up round after round he simply took more and more of a beating. John fended him off using a lot of shoulder rolling, slipping, and ducking and often countered with his signature dragon punch. The fight got competitive by the 5th round but Piriyapinyo was still unable to win it. However, the pace of the fight caught up to John in the 6th as he got himself into a back and forth war with his younger opponent. Piriyapinyo emerged the stronger at the end of the 6th and his momentum continued into the 7th. Both fighters were hurt in an excellent round 7 with John taking the worst of it. The legs were beginning to go on John and the 8th round was pretty much used for recovery. Fortunately for John the 8th was the last great effort Piriyapinyo had in him. The Thai ran out of gas and John took over for the rest of the fight. Had Piriyapinyo not run out of gas I probably would have nominated this for fight of the year. Nonetheless it was still a very good fight.

This fight marked the 1st defeat of the previously 44-0 Piriyapinyo and the 48th win for John, now unbeaten in 50 contests. John has held some version of the WBA featherweight title since 2003 and is now 16-0-2 in world title fights. It's the longest unbeaten world title streak in boxing today, well, minus Floyd Mayweather and his multi-organization/division titles.

Daud Cino Yordan UD12 Choi Tseveenpurev [IBO featherweight title]

Arnel Tinampay UD6 Yosuke Kirima

Mohamad Nor Rizan MD4 Wang Xin Hua

Muhammad Meeraj MD4 Komgrit Nanakorn

Qiu Xiao-Jun TKO3 Hwi-Jong Kim

Syafiq Abdul Samad TKO1 James Goyder

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2012-11-09 Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan

Found the main event and one undercard on YouTube.

Yoshitaka Kato TKO5 Shoji Kawase

Kato made the 3rd defense of his Japanese lightweight title by stopping Kawase at the end of the 5th round. Kawase proved to be a game opponent that at times was in clear control of the fight but was ultimately worn down. In the 4th round Kawase was caught with a downward arching right hand that slid off the edge of his chin and continued all the way to his stomach. Although a grazing shot, it still snapped Kawase's head and caused him to take 2 knees. Kato tried to immediately follow up and get Kawase out of there but found his target quite elusive...for a while. Eventually another arching right hand caught Kawase again, this time flush against the left side of his face. Oddly enough Kawase only took 1 knee this time, got up quicker, and survived the rest of the round without taking another damaging punch. Kawase then came out to fight the 5th like the 4th round never happened. He arguably even won the first two minutes of the round. But then a wild overhand right caught Kawase on the temple and put him down for the 3rd and final time in the fight. I don't doubt that Kawase could have gotten up but the ref waved it off immediately and basically held him down. It was probably the right thing to do.

Yukinori Hisanaga TKO2 Yuji Ota

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2012-11-09 Complejo de La Inalambrica, Merida, Yucatán, Mexico

Azteca America televised 3 bouts from this card the next day.

Miguel Berchelt TKO2 Oliver Flores

In a battle of unbeaten, hard hitting prospects Berchelt defended his WBC Youth Intercontinental super featherweight title. The 1st round was close and could have gone either way. Through most of it I felt the Nicaraguan Flores actually produced the cleaner, harder shots and was better defensively. The Azteca America team agreed that Flores won the 1st round. Nonetheless I knew things would end badly for Flores once I saw how off balance he became when Berchelt countered well at the end of the round. Flores, an awkward southpaw, continued to bring the heat in the 2nd round but began to get rocked by counter left hooks that he never had a glove up to defend. A left hook would ultimately put Flores down face first and motionless for half a 10 count. Flores flopped and shot up easily once he finally stopped acting like he was out cold. Unfortunately for Flores boxing is not the NBA and the referee decided to stop the fight even though Flores easily beat his count. Flores protested and starting jumping around to show how fine he was but it didn't help.

Juan Kantun D8 Pedro Melo

This was a controversial decision. The Azteca America commentators thought Kantun was robbed blind. It did not appear to be a close fight. Melo was competitive in losing rounds, but he was still losing them. Fortunately Kantun only had to take a draw instead of a loss.

Angel Aviles UD6 Miguel Herrera

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2012-11-09 Ce.De.M. N° 2, Caseros, Buenos Aires, Argentina

TyC televised 3 bouts.

Javier Francisco Maciel KO4 Anderson Clayton

Maciel was just too big, strong, and skilled for Clayton to handle. Maciel's partially blocked shots did more damage than the punches Clayton landed flush. With less than 10 seconds to go in the 4th round a left hook to the body put Clayton on his butt and down for the count. With the victory Maciel successfully defended his WBO Latino light middleweight title and showed why he gave WBO middleweight champion Dmitry Pirog so much trouble last year.

Lucas German Priori UD6 Adan Martinez

You should all know Priori from his knockout of the year worthy debut.

Adrian Luciano Veron KO1 Roberto Javier Rios

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2012-11-09 Palazzetto dello Sport, Celano, Abruzzo, Italy

Sportitalia2 televised part of this card, but I can only confirm the main event. It was awesome.

Sofiane Takoucht SD12 Davide Dieli

Dieli, who won the vacant EBU-EU featherweight title in his previous bout (against an opponent who had no business challenging for it), found defending it against a worthy challenger to be more than he could handle. From the onset Takoucht showed to have an advantage with straight punches using his superior height and reach. Dieli had his best moments when he forced Takoucht to fight instead of box. Takoucht, a southpaw, often threw 1-2 combinations with the jab almost always to the head but with the follow up straight left varying to the head and body. Both fighters threw a lot of combinations although Takoucht's were clearly cleaner and more effective.

Dieli could be competitive but he was hopeless in actually winning a round if he fought at Takoucht's pace. Thus Dieli stepped up his work rate in the 3rd and arguably stole the round. It didn't matter if Dieli actually landed a scoring blow; just letting his hands go and making contact got the crowd cheering. At the very least he made it entertaining and actually did land a really good shot from time to time. But ultimately that was the difference in the fight; Dieli landed a good shot sometimes while Takoucht did so all the time. I'm willing to concede that Dieli's landed punches on average were superior to those of Takoucht, but by no means did it translate into him arguably winning a majority of rounds. The one judge who scored it for Dieli should be ashamed of himself.

But let's get back to the fight itself. In round 6 the fight went from good to "maybe I should call someone and tell them to turn this on." It was fought at a grueling pace and both men landed big and often. The 7th round was also exciting but the two clearly "slowed down," at least compared to the unsustainable pace they operated at in the 6th. To my delight they somehow got their wind back in the 8th and fought even more furiously. The 8th was the first round which I felt Dieli clearly won although I had him close in perhaps 2 before. His momentum continued into the 9th which I felt he took as well by landing the best shots although Takoucht controlled most of it.

However, the pace returned to what Takoucht preferred in the 10th. In the remainder of the fight the best shots were straight right hands from Dieli but they were trumped by the consistency of Takoucht's clean work. Takoucht pretty much dominated Diale in the last round but as soon as it ended the Italian celebrated what he thought was inevitable victory... There have been some notable robberies in Italy this year, but had Diale won this fight it would have been up there at the top of the list.

Fortunately the Frenchman, Takoucht, got the decision if only barely. This was the 2nd best fight from Italy I've seen all year next to Silvio Branco vs Giacobbe Fragomeni. I suggest you watch both of them.

2012-09-11 Sports Center, Cetinje, Montenegro

I can only confirm that TVCG Sat broadcasted the main event, the only fight I saw.

Predrag Radosevic TD9 Virgilijus Stapulionis (87-83, 87-83, 85-85)

Undefeated fringe contender Radosevic extended his record to 27-0 and narrowly retained his IBF International middleweight title. Both fighters showed good boxing skills and hand speed. Stapulionis had the superior offense in my mind and certainly hit harder. Radosevic on the other hand showed superior footwork. Radosevic also angled himself enough such that when Stapulionis missed with right hands they often caught Radosevic on the back of the head. You may say to yourself how in the world is that a good thing? Well it is good when you get the referee to deduct a point for it in the 4th round. Radosevic was the hometown fighter and was certainly treated like it.

After taking a beating in the 6th round Radosevic decided he would land some shots to the back of the head of his own, but naturally nothing came of it. Radosevic continued to take a beating in the 7th but in the 8th got the brilliant idea to hold when he needed a break and thus took less of a beating. Yet, he still clearly lost the round in my eyes. The beat down continued in the 9th but an accidental head clash caused a bad gash to open outside of Stapulionis' right eye, thus the fight went to the cards. You could see Stapulionis getting the shaft from a mile away. And that's why fighters are told to take it out of the hands of the judges.

2012-11-10 Polideportivo Municipal, Malargüe, Mendoza, Argentina

TyC televised the full card.

Juan Carlos Reveco UD12 Julian Rivera

This is was the main event and a world title fight but I really can't be bothered to detail it too much. Reveco pitched a shutout and successfully defended his interim WBA flyweight title. In the 2nd round an accidental headbutt opened up a cut outside of Reveco's left eye. That was honestly the most difficult obstacle he had to overcome for the rest of the fight, and it wasn't that bad. You can say this for Rivera though: he gave it everything he had until the final bell. He just wasn't skilled enough to execute what he was trying to do. Rivera makes for good fights. This one was 1 sided but it was still good and Rivera's last two fights against Edgar Jimenez were excellent. I wouldn't mind seeing him on TV again, but he probably doesn't deserve another world title shot. Just to be thorough, TyC did give Rivera the last round. He at least gets an A for effort from me. The round was actually debatable.

Now I'd like to bring attention to the super WBA flyweight champion Hernan Marquez. Since Marquez was upgraded from "regular" to "super" leading into his "super" fight with Brian Viloria, we may see Reveco upgraded from interim to "regular" in no time. Then of course the WBA will just have to find someone else to hold the interim title, and thus the cycle continues...

Yesica Patricia Marcos UD8 Paula Andrea Morales

Leandro David Esperante TKO2 Jesus David Aguirre

Sergio Mauricio Gil KO1 Alejandro Hector Burella Ciacia

Juan Carlos Cano KO1 Luis Mancilla

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There will be no Wednesday edition of the weekend recap but here are some fights I'm going to catch up on during the week:

2012-11-10 Humberto Soto UD12 Jose Lopez (115-111, 114-112, 115-112)
2012-11-10 Gianluca Branco UD12 Krzysztof Bienias (117-111, 117-113, 116-113)

If a bout is not mentioned which took place on one of the above cards it's most likely because I haven't got around to watching it yet. In the event that I do watch such a bout at a later time it's still unlikely I will update this recap. My recaps will be posted on Mondays and/or Wednesdays, devoted to cards that most casual American boxing fans haven't seen or heard of. For available footage of the previously reported bouts follow @sweetboxing on twitter. You may also email the author of this piece at rgbivins@gmail.com