Alright it’s time to Monday morning quarterback this weekend’s boxing. On Friday DAZN televised a card in Puerto Vallarta Mexico where the co-main event was a local San Diego fighter Angel “Tashiro” Fierro. Tashiro made a splash on the boxing scene some time ago when he upset Puerto Rican favorite Alberto Machado on a RingCity promoted card in Puerto Rico. He won on Friday night versus a very brave Christian Bielma in the 4th round by TKO, to win the NABO WBO Lightweight title. On the commentary was Los Angeles favorite Beto Duran and none other than Philadelphia’s Gabriel Rosado, who only two weeks ago went twelve hard rounds with Jaime Munguia at the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA. In the main event we saw Erika Cruz in her first title defense versus Melissa Esquivel, defending her WBA Featherweight title. Erika confessed in her post fight interview that there is still much more to learn in the gym and that her ultimate goal is to challenge world champion Amanda Serrano. She admits there aren’t many featherweights she can fight in her native country Mexico and will most likely need to start traveling to find opponents. Erika and Melissa knew each other from sparring sessions and the fight was entertaining with Melissa burying her head and throwing hard combinations the majority of the bout. Melissa definitely proved she deserved to be in there and boxed the majority of the bout on the back foot, even winning the bout on one of the judges' score cards.
Alright, now onto the biggest news in boxing. Teofimo Lopez loses a split decision to heavy underdog George Kambosos of Australia in an event that was re-scheduled a record eight times, switched promotions from Triller to DAZN and eventually bring promoted by Eddie Hearn’s Matchroom Boxing. The fight took place at the Madison Square Garden in New York. There were a total of two knockdowns in the fight, one for each side. Lopez went down in the 1st round from a counter right hand from Kambosos and in the 10th round Lopez knocked his opponent down. Both recovered from the knockdowns and in an interview with Marcos Villegas of FightHubTV, Kambosos said that he lost focus for a second but after getting back to his corner after the 10th round he was determined to make Lopez pay for that knockdown and he wanted to win both the last two rounds. At the end of the fight both fighters shook each other’s hands which they vowed not to do in such a heated build up to the bout. The press conferences, the weight in were so intense and seemed very personal, a little more from Team Lopez but Team Kambosos refused to be intimated. A video of Teofimo Lopez Sr. screaming and approaching George Kamobosos' father in a gym went viral only a couple days prior to the fight. Lopez Sr. screamed and promised a first round knockout. Kambosos father defended himself saying he too is from the streets and can handle things anyway Lopez Sr. can. Teofimo Lopez Jr. was in the middle of an interview when the screaming started and was telling someone that if they needed to get his father out of the gym, that he was ok with it. “That’s just the way he gets.”
My timeline on Twitter was full of comments about Teofimo needing to drop his father as a trainer. I didn’t agree with those statements then and I don’t agree with them now. There was criticism of Lopez’s cutman and how he did his job. There were some statements of Team Lopez not having some key missing people in the corner and key people in training that he did have as part of his team in the camp leading up to the bout versus Vasiliy Lomachenko, which earned him the top spot in the lightweight division.
One of the most interesting statements that caught my attention was how George Kambosos talked about the championship belts. He recognized that the WBA has two belts within the same lightweight division, the Super belt and the regular belt. He also acknowledged that the WBC has the same issue pointing at the two green belts on the table in front of him, the Franchise belt and the regular belt. But it’s what he said next that I gravitated towards. Kambosos said, I almost wish I didn’t have any of them so that I could keep the same hunger I had when I didn’t have any of them. Imagine that. Imagine almost not wanting the CEO title and position in order to maintain the hunger and work ethic one once had as a Director. One thing is for sure, the media was ready with headlines stating specifically “Unified” champion for Kambosos and not the previous title of "Undisputed", which described Lopez.
I have to admit, I didn’t stay up to see the Brandon Figueroa versus Stephen Fulton bout. But I heard it was a banger and if my schedule permits I’ll be catching up on that one very soon.
You can find me on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Sonteo Media.
Comments