World Weekend Roundup: Kovalev, Vargas Retain Title Belts

Two world title fights led the way over the weekend with both reigning champions, Sergey Kovalev and Jessie Vargas, retaining their belts.

WBO light heavy champ Kovalev, 25-0 (23), made the third defense of his reign in dominating fashion as he ended the ambitions of southpaw challenger Blake Caparello, 19-1-1 (6), at 1:47 of the second round at Revel Resort in Atlantic City, NJ on Saturday night.

It wasn’t all one way traffic for Kovalev however, as the Russian hit the deck in the first round after fielding a long Caparello left. Kovalev, who was up immediately, seemed to have lost his balance more than anything else and was clearly not hurt.

A second round spearing right hand to the solar plexus heralded the beginning of the end for Australia’s Caparello, who was forced to take a knee, before beating the count. Kovalev then battered Caparello down again in a corner before accomplishing the feat once more, forcing a stoppage.

The next fight on the horizon for Kovalev is reportedly a unification clash with the ageless master, WBA/IBF champ Bernard Hopkins.

Thus far, Kovalev has defended against the relatively unseasoned trio of Ismayl Sillah, Cedric Agnew and now Caparello; a clash against Hopkins would definitely end that trend.

It’s a very interesting matchup as Hopkins excels at neutralizing the strengths of his opponents but, at age 49, could he take away the awesome power of the 31 year old Kovlev?

It’s been four years since anyone went the distance with “Krusher” but Kovalev does favor fighting at a moderate pace, from a distance, has never been past rounds and his most experienced opponent to date has been Nathan Cleverly.

If the Philadelphian can stave off Father Time for one more occasion, he could wear a third world title belt around his waist this autumn.

Down at light welterweight, Jessie Vargas, 25-0 (9), made the maiden defense of his WBA crown but had a good fight on his hands from unbeaten challenger Anton Novikov, 29-1 (10), of Russia on Saturday at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, NV.

The largely unknown Novikov certainly came to fight as he put up a spirited effort but the southpaw was just a shade slower then Vargas and was also wobbled on occasion by the American, who swept the scorecards 118-1110, 118-110, 117-111.

Next up for Vargas could be a mandatory defense against WBA Interim titlist Mauricio Herrera, who, having pushed WBC and WBA “Super” champ Danny Garcia hard in a failed title bid in March, should pose a serious challenge.

The undercard in Las Vegas saw a foul-fest between welterweights Brandon Rios, 32-2-1 (23), and Diego Gabriel Chaves, 23-2 (19), which Rios won in the seventh when Chaves was disqualified.

Also on Saturday, the IBF Female light flyweight crown was contested at Adachi Ward Sogo Sports Center in Tokyo, with local reigning champ Naoko Shibata, 13-3 (4), gunning down Mexico’s WBF titlist Ana Arrazola, 20-10-2 (13), in the ninth round.

On Friday, the action took place in Wolverhampton, England with Commonwealth welter kingpin Frankie Gavin, 19-1 (12), looking to add to his trophy cabinet the European crown of Italy’s Leonard Bundu, 31-0-2 (11).

Gavin used his southpaw stance and height advantage to good effect early on but the quicker Bundu managed to narrow the distance Gavin was looking to maintain and downed the Englishman with a body shot in the sixth.

The local man managed to beat the count but from that point on had difficulty with the busier Bundu, who used combination punching to produce a split decision verdict to keep the European belt by scores, winning two cards at 114-113 while Gavin took the third 115-113.

Heavyweights were in action in Wolverhampton as Lucas Browne, 21-0 (18), fought off numerous cuts and was taken the distance for only the third time in his career by Andriy Rudenko, 24-1 (16), sweeping the cards by margins of 117-112, 116-112, 115-113, for two regional titles.