Jan
11
A roundup of the past week’s notable boxing results from around the world:
Saturday at Offenburg, Germany
Giovanni De Carolis TKO11 Vincent Feigenbutz
wins a vacant super middleweight title
Records: De Carolis (24-6, 12 KOs); Feigenbutz (21-2, 19 KOs)
Rafael’s remarks: On Oct. 17 in Germany, Feigenbutz and De Carolis met for the first time and Feigenbutz got knocked down in the first round and went on to eke out a debatable unanimous decision on scores of 115-113, 115-113 and 114-13 in a highly competitive fight. To set the record straight, Feigenbutz, 20, of Germany, and De Carolis, 31, of Italy, met in a rematch.
Unlike the first encounter, when Feigenbutz’s interim 168-pound belt was on the line, this time they were meeting for a vacant secondary world title as Feigenbutz, the big favorite, was seeking to become Germany’s youngest-ever world titleholder. He lost, however, and the record still belongs to Graciano Rocchigiani, who was 24 when he won a vacant super middleweight title in 1988.
Before the rematch, Feigenbutz said the reason for his shaky performance the first time around is because he went into the fight while getting over a cold. He promised he would be much better in the sequel, but that turned out not to be the case. De Carolis outhustled him throughout the fight. He was just the better fighter.
Going into the 11th round, De Carolis led on all three scorecards — 98-92, 96-94 and 96-94. And then came the fight-ending barrage. De Carolis, who had worn down Feigenbutz, nailed him with a clean right hand that shook him to his boots. Feigenbutz’s legs turned to jelly and he nearly went down. He staggered into the ropes and De Carolis absolutely unloaded. He hammered Feigenbutz with a sustained flurry of about 15 unanswered blows, nearly all of which landed — including a right hand behind the head when Feigenbutz turned away after the initial big shot that hurt him — before referee Gustavo Padilla jumped in and pulled De Carolis off of him 32 seconds into the round. It seemed to be a definitive result but Feigenbutz promoter Team Sauerland showed postfight interest in a rubber match.
Dereck Chisora KO2 Andras Csomor
Heavyweight
Records: Chisora (25-5, 17 KOs); Csomor (14-9-1, 12 KOs)
Rafael’s remarks: In December, England’s Chisora, who lost a decision in 2009 in a world title fight to Vitali Klitschko, not to mention a pair of losses to future world champion Tyson Fury, signed with Germany’s Team Sauerland and reeled off a two easy knockout victories. Against Csomor, 27, of Hungary, Chisora, 32, notched his third knockout win in 35 days as he aims to get back into the title hunt as quickly as possible.
Chisora, who won his fifth in a row since getting knocked out in the 10th round of his rematch with Fury in November 2014, had no issues with Csomor. He came out aggressively and easily won the first round during which he connected with several stiff jabs that knocked Csomor back. It was more of the same in the second round. Csomor looked tired already as his mouth was hanging open as he sucked for air. When Chisora slammed him with a clean right hand to the jaw, Csomor was badly hurt and staggered almost all the way across the ring into the ropes and although he did not go down, referee Holger Wiemann waved off the fight at 2 minutes, 8 seconds. Csomor’s modest two-fight winning streak came to an end.
Saturday at Picanya, Spain
Evgeny Gradovich W10 Jesus Galicia
Junior lightweight
Scores: 99-93, 96-94, 96-96
Records: Gradovich (21-1-1, 9 KOs); Galicia (13-9-1, 8 KOs)
Rafael’s remarks: Gradovich, 29, of Russia, lost his featherweight world title in a one-sided eighth-round technical decision to Lee Selby in England this past May and although Gradovich has won two fights in a row since, he did not look sharp in either fight. He eked out an eight-round split decision against journeyman Aldimar Silva Santos in October and then survived a hard-fought scrap against Galicia, a 28-year-old southpaw from Mexico, who came at him all fight.
Gradovich, fighting at 128 pounds, four more than Galicia, has been mentioned as a possible opponent to challenge junior featherweight titlist Nonito Donaire in April in the Philippines, but between having to get down to 122 pounds and how shaky he looked against a such a nondescript opponent, it remains to be seen if Top Rank can make that fight or still will want to.
Nonetheless, Gradovich got the win over Galicia in a big struggle. Galicia gave as good as he got, as he winged wild punches throughout the fight. They spent the bulk of the fight swapping clean shots at close range because neither has good defense. In the second round, Gradovich, with top-notch trainer Robert Garcia in his corner, opened a cut over Galicia’s right eye. Galicia, however, was undeterred and did very well, although Gradovich, who countered nicely, was a bit better in the late rounds and came away with the competitive but deserved points victory after they closed out the fight in a fierce exchange along the ropes in the final seconds. Galicia dropped to 1-3-1 in his past four bouts.
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