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While this weekend was surely eventful, and an enlightening time for prosperous underdogs Tony Thompson, Alejandro Perez and Ishe Smith, the boxing blackout continued with few elite fighters stepping into the ring on larger stages, but that doesn’t stop Saddoboxing.com for getting you your weekend fight fix!
In a stunning performance, one right hand by American Tony Thompson sliced away future title hopes for British crusher David Price.
It wasn’t an overly dramatic performance by Thompson, more of one sweeping shot on an unbalanced and overconfident Price that sparked the unthinkable as promoter Frank Maloney fainted ringside, viewing his 2012 prospect of the year’s 15 fight knockout spree get shattered by a determined opponent.
Maloney made it to the post-fight press conference to emphasize that Price will rebound from this defeat, siting this as only a mere setback.
The skyscraping British champion surely needs to consider working on defense and physical endurance, however, as he never regained his stability despite reaching his feet during his shocking defeat to Thompson.
Consecutively in the United States, contender Ishe Smith used swift skills and a compact right cross to swipe up a raw Cornelius “K9” Bundrage’s IBF title belt over a 12-round split decision. An emotional Smith became the first Las Vegas born world champion.
Smith is the first world champion to come out of an encouraging Floyd Mayweather’s promotional stable. J’Leon Love, another one of “Money”‘s rising fighters, grabbed a unfaltering shutout victory over a determined but outmatched Derrick Findley in the co-headliner.
Also that night, heavyweight Malik Scott crashed the international fight scene using precise timing and superb boxing skills to outbox Ukrainian fighter Vyacheslav Glazkov but was forced to settle for a well disputed draw, although most observers boldly felt he had done enough to edge it.
Scott, grabbing his biggest win to date, is standing on the gate of prospect-to-contender and is expecting major opportunities soon. Glazkov is in the luxurious heavyweight stable of Main Events and could face one of their fighters,such as Steve Cunningham, Tomasz Adamek, Odlanier Solis or Eddie Chambers soon.
On Friday, IBF Light Welterweight champion Lamont Peterson snapped a 14 month hiatus in ripping apart mandatory challenger Kendall Holt over eight rounds enroute to a brutal stoppage. Holt boxed well over the first three rounds but Peterson’s intelligent pressure fighting eventually saw Holt torn apart by a determined hometown champion.
Holt’s career, primarily based on his reckless one-punch knockout power, is on thin ice with another tough loss. He may move up to 147 lbs. Peterson, inking a promotional pact with the popular Golden Boy Promotions, is eager to unify his strap; perhaps facing Danny Garcia and eventually Argentinian sensation Lucas Matthysse?
Later that evening on a second Gary Shaw Productions show, fringe contender Alejandro Perez stunned highly regarded Armenian-American prospect Art Hovhannisyan with a highly-contested decision victory.
Hovhannisyan and Perez, friends outside the ring ,showed no such glimpses of such inside the ring, trading toe-to-toe from the first bell. Few would argue with the close verdict, both men fought hard but undoubtedly Perez earned the nod over 10. What a 31 year old Hovhannisyan will do next is uncertain. Perez will go back the drawing board in the midst of another major opportunity.
