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Monday, July 18, 2016

Watch: Wilder vs. Arreola highlights



Deontay Wilder (37-0, 36 KOs) remained undefeated stopping Chris Arreola (36-5-1, 31 KOs) on Saturday at the Legacy Arena, Birmingham, in Alabama.

Wilder dropped Arreola in the 4th round with series of unanswered combinations. Prior to that, Wilder had a good time entertaining the crowd by circling his hip while Arreola punching the side of his body. Wilder then created a space between them and landed a crisp uppercut.

With the win, Wilder called out the Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua for a unification bout.

"Of course I want the Furys, of course I want the Joshuas, but the question is, do they want me? My goal is to unify the division. I'm one of the baddest, hardest-hitting heavyweights in the business, so whoever's got those belts, that's who I want," said Wilder.

Friday, July 15, 2016

Review: Pinoy Pride 37 Albert Pagara vs Cesar Juarez

On an ecstatic Saturday night, few days removed from the 4th July celebration, the Filipino-American crowd at the San Mateo Event Center in California was silenced by a thundering punch combination from tough and rugged Mexican Cezar Juarez that sent "Prince" Albert Pagara down to the canvas for good. A painful first career loss of a promising Filipino prospect is often tagged as the next big thing in Philippine boxing.

Pagara (26-1, 18 KOs) was in control early in the fight. He scored the first knockdown of the fight in the very first round. Pagara landed a counter left hook that betrayed Juarez his knees.

But I know Juarez very well. He will get up.

Juarez (18-5, 14 KOs) found notoriety when got up several times from the floor and mounted a spirited rally in the second half of the fight against Fil-Am Nonito Donaire when they fought in Puerto Rico. Donaire survived Juarez's rally and won on three scorecards.

The knockdown boasted Pagara's confidence. But Pagara went to the neutral corner obviously aware of how tough Juarez is, and expecting Juarez to continue. As expected, Juarez got up and ready to continue but the bell sounded signaling the end of the first round.

In the second round, Pagara is still in control. He landed clear counters, as Juarez continued pressing forward.

In the succeeding rounds, Juarez was able to pin Pagara to the ropes and landed power shots to Pagara's head and body. Although Pagara connected a few good counters too, those counters didn't have enough power to deterred Juarez's attacks. It seemed Juarez's body punches took the steam out from Pagara's punches.

In the 7th round, Juarez mounted an all-out attack that pinned Pagara to the corner. Juarez poured power shots that Pagara tried to block but few landed. Pagara managed to escape from the corner to his left, but he was caught with a solid punch escaping out. He was stunned!

He was cornered again to the ropes and fighting using the famed rope-a-dope technique, but obviously, he didn't have enough toughness to withstand more power shots from Juarez. He managed to escape again and landed few counters that momentarily stopped Juarez on his track. But Juarez came back strong and finished the round having Pagara again pinned to the ropes, landing power shots.

In the eighth round, Juarez came out smoking. Pagara, obviously, still trying to recover from the rough seventh round, was greeted by a combination of power shots that sent Pagara crashing to the floor. He tried to get up, but he was not able to make it.

A gruesome scene followed. Pagara was taken out of the ring through a stretcher and was sent to a nearby hospital. He was later cleared from any life-threatening injuries. But Pagara was advised to take a two-month break from boxing.

“Naunahan lang po ako! (He just got me first.)”, said Pagara of his 8th round knockout defeat against Juarez.

One thing I noticed on Pagara throughout the course of the fight. He was actually battling distraction throughout the fight. I noticed from Round 1 that he kept on clearing his hair with his right hand. The Justin Bieber-inspired haircut didn't do good on Pagara while battling the toughest opponent of his career. His hair draped down to his eyes distracting his focus. Instead of finding an opportunity to land a counter right hand--instead, he's using the right hand to clear his hair that obstructed his vision.

A loss may not define a boxing career. But on how a devastating first loss is being taken. If the young Pagara takes it positively and moves on from there. I'm sure he'll come back stronger and better than his last win.

Juarez, on the other hand, could be well in place to secure a rematch with Donaire. Donaire was also at ringside serving as a commentator for Philippine broadcast media.

Dodong Donaire, father, and trainer of Nonito told Boxingscene.com that ABS-CBN is willing to broadcast a rematch between Donaire and Juarez.

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Jhon Riel Casimero to face UK's Charlie Edwards

World flyweight titlist Jhon Riel Casimero (22-3, 14 KOs) will face decorated amateur and English flyweight champion Charlie Edwards (7-0, 3 KOs) for Casimero's flyweight title at the O2 Arena (Millenium Dome), in London.

In a Twitter post, promoter Eddie Hearn announced the fight on Monday. The fight will be on Sept. 10.

Casimero regained his title back from Thailand's Amnat Ruenroeng in a rematch last May. He lost to Ruenroeng in an ugly first bout.

Meanwhile, Edwards' undefeated in seven pro-bouts. He was also a former European bronze medalist. Prior to the Casimero fight, Edwards will have to get past one scheduled fight against an opponent yet to be identified. The scheduled fight will happen on Saturday at the Max Schmeling Halle, Prenzlauer Berg, in Berlin.

Friday, July 1, 2016

Review: Keith Thurman vs Shawn Porter


Keith Thurman vs Shawn Porter Full Fight Boxing... by usamasterman

You know what? Blogging boxing at times can be very tough. I mean you should take a considerable amount of time dedicated to update, read and watch fights. Well, watching would be the easy thing to do as this is what I like. I like to watch boxing matches. I'm a lifelong boxing fan. But, of course, putting your two cents into writing is the tough part. Well to be honest, the toughest actually is to keep this blog with up-to-date content. That's why if you are a boxing fan and you wanted to say something about anything boxing. Shoot me an email at rey.tecson@theboxingdiary.com I'll have it published here.

Well, last week, I wasn't able to post any fight recaps. But it doesn't mean though that there were no significant fights last week. Last week, instead, there were good quality fights. Just like the above bout between Keith Thurman (27-0, 22 KOs) and Shawn Porter (26-2-1, 16 KOs) fight last Saturday night on PBConCBS at the Barclays Center, in Brooklyn, New York. But because of those things that I've been going through with life nowadays; tough time at day job, family and relationships, you know, just at times too harsh to juggle.

Anyway whatever it was, it will never rocked my love of the sport of boxing. I mean, this sport really just ran through my veins like blood. I may die without it.

Enough with the dramatic intro. Well, the above fight was really one of the best match-ups in boxing I've seen. Thurman-Porter was not just relentless action throughout the whole 36-minute slug-fest. The bout showed interesting style match-up and ring IQ. Although style makes fights, and the one that would tweak his style keeping in mind finding way to eke out game plan to edge the style presented by the opponent.

With the above said, that's why Thurman won upon the eyes of the three judges at ringside who scored it 115-113 across the board. And I agree with the verdict. I have it too close but of course Thurman winning. Thurman was able to find a way in every engagement with Porter to land effective clean counters. Thurman was able to tweak his style. He thought of defense first, because he knows that the style of Porter will initiate and engage in exchanging leather from start to end.

Porter on the other hand really stuck to his style, which is all out aggression using his physical strength. Although at times he was successful especially when he was able to plant his head on the chest of Thurman, and pinned Thurman to the ropes. And then firing combinations with all his might. But most of the time the aggression were not enough to warrant an effective aggression to win rounds in those close competitive stanzas.

Thurman was able to smothered some of those punches, ducked and come back with left and right counter hooks upstairs -- few of them rocked Porter and momentarily stopped from his track.

As a boxing fan, I can say that: I'm, at times, at the edge of my couch watching the fight. Many already considered the bout a strong "Fight of the Year" contender. Well, it should be considered. The fight never lack the action a fight fan would love to see. But of course we love knockdowns or knockouts. The absence of  KO and KDs of the Thurman-Porter fight will not drop from being considered as serious contender for this year's Fight of the Year honors.

But hey! If I will watch side-by-side the Thurman-Porter fight with the Magsayo-Avalos fight last April---of course I'll be incline to give the Magsayo-Avalos fight of the year trophy. Magsayo and Avalos exchanged knockdowns. Both in the verge to be taken out by each other. Whewww!

Well, the Thurman-Porter fight really had an impressive viewership on free-TV on PBConCBS Saturday night.

It will be a challenge to boxing promoter out there to produce fights like this quality to happen. I really hate marinating match-ups. It is not necessary really to build superstars. All boxing fans need is quality fights with regards to action and fireworks inside the ring. Maybe we can lure fans to watch a well-hyped and marinated bout. But end of the day if it will not deliver the qualities of a good fight, well there will be repercussions. Mayweather-Pacquiao really did not worth more than a decade of marination. Oppps! I should have moved on from this. Like a lover boy left behind by his girl for already more than a year now. Time will heal. But oh still thinking of the $99.

The GGG-Canelo should be made. But anyway if the marination process would involve GGG versus Chris Eubank Jr. then so be it. So Tom Loeffler, start putting on soy sauce to the marination process because for sure Eubank Jr. is the chili that will really add the spice of the marination. Just make sure it will not end up Canelo-Eubank in the end.