Welcome to our newest sport/series, BOXING! It was a long-time coming, but it’s here. This will be a weekly series recaping the previous fights and previewing the coming fights. With the year ending we have some great fights and some crazy fights to anticipate. This weekend we had one of the three Heavyweight Kings of the World, Anthony Joshua fight against Kubret Pulev. Later on that night we had a great fight between Masayoshi Nakatani and Felix Verdejo. Then, to cap off the night we had a young upcoming star, Shakur Stevenson fight Toka Kahn-Clary. It was a great day of boxing on Saturday, let’s dig in.
(C) Anthony Joshua v. Kubret Pulev
The British Badass is BACK! AJ went out there last Saturday and put on a SHOW! He started slow in the first two rounds but after the third, you knew this one would be over soon. In the third round, AJ started hitting this dude to the point, Pulev started smiling because he knew how badly Joshua was beating him around. After many rounds Joshua started to look tired until the ninth round, Joshua threw a set up jab (didn’t land) and delivered the mighty right hand to get the KO and move onto 24-1. It was a beautiful KO and the post-fight interview was something else to talk about. The media kept asking Joshua and his promoter Eddie Hearns on a possible box office fight between Joshua and the Gypsy King, Tyson Fury. Hearns and Joshua dodged the questions as much as they can and said, “When the time is right,” I personally don’t see this happening unless they get pressured to do it. I see him fighting Usyk before Fury, and I’d prefer the Fury fight but with Hearns as his promoter I don’t see it. It’ll also be a huge mess due to the fact that ESPN uses PPV still and DAZN is a streaming service. However, props to AJ and glad to see him at the top again. Fury vs. Joshua, hopefully.
Masayoshi Nakatani v. Felix Verdejo
This fight was very underrated, it was the match fight before Stevenson v. Kahn Clary. Felix Verdejo was trying to be the next great Puerto Rican fighter and Nakatani was trying to prove his dominance, which he did. It was an all around good fight for Verdejo, he started strong and looked like he was on the brink of victory until the ninth round. Nakatani landed a low jab to the chin that scored him a knockdown, Verdejo was clearly hurt. He fought back up and Nakatani delivered a right hand to the back of the head and that was it. Nakatani was declared victor after a ninth round KO.
Shakur Stevenson v. Toka Kahn Clary
Newark Native, Shakur Stevenson in his Junior Lightweight debut defeated Toka Kahn Clary via decision. It was clean shutout for Shakur and if he had a harder punch with much more strength he would’ve been able to knock him out. However, with this victory it looks like he’s going to be looking for gold in the 130 lbs division. Kahn Clary was a nice opponent to settle him in for his first fight in the division, Shakur now moves onto 15-0. Future is bright for the 23 year old.
Preview: (C) Gennady Golovkin v. Kamil Szeremeta
Later today, GGG will be defending his IBF Middleweight Championship in a mandatory title defense versus Kamil Szeremeta. It seems as GGG best days are behind him and many would called him “washed” and “past his prime.” Which are fair comments to make, but he’s still a great fighter. He holds a record of 40-1-1 (35 KO’s), loss coming to Canelo Alvarez and tie also with Canelo Alvarez. He will face Kamil Szeremeta, who holds the perfect record of 21-0 (5 KO’s). Kamil isn’t exactly a great fighter, and GGG is in great shape. If GGG were to lose, it would kill his chances of a third fight with Canelo. He wants Canelo for the third time, but Canelo has already proven himself. My prediction is GGG with the victory.
Preview: (C) Canelo Alvarez v. (C) Callum Smith
Tomorrow we will have a GREAT fight. It’ll be between, one of the baddest man on the planet Canelo Alvarez versus current Callum Smith. The contest will be for the WBA Super Middleweight Title and WBC championship as well. Canelo is 53-1-2 (36 KO’s), loss versus Floyd Mayweather and ties against Gennady Golovkin and Jorge Juarez. Canelo is a champion in 4 different divisions and plans to add more gold to his resume. Callum Smith on the other hand is a great competitor for Canelo and is perfect with a 27-0 (19 KO’s) record. Smith towers over Canelo with a 6’3 height and Canelo being 5’9. This will be a very good fight and I think it’ll be hard for both fighters. We’ll see who will win, I personally have Canelo winning this fight. I’m rooting for Smith but Canelo keeps proving that time and time against he’s one of the best fighters in the game.
Thanks for reading everybody. This has been Jose Calderon III with FiveBoroughDispatch, have a great day; everybody!
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