By Mark DeSisto and Ryan Burton, live at ringside
KHAN-MAIDANA RESULT
Las Vegas, Mandalay Bay - In a few shorts hours, Amir Khan will defend his WBA junior welterweight title against mandatory/interim-challenger Marcos Maidana. The toughest fight of Khan's career and the biggest puncher in Khan's path since the 2008 54-second drubbing at the hands of Breidis Prescott. The co-feature will be an interesting contest as well, with Victor Ortiz and Lamont Peterson meeting in a high-stakes battel with the winner being in the mix for some very big fights.
In the final non-televised bout of the evening, former two-division champion Joan Guzman scored a 2nd round TKO over an extremely outmatched Jason Davis (11-8-1, 3KO), who seemingly had no business being in the ring with the Dominican native.
The apprehensive Davis quickly went down in the opening minute from a cuffing shot towards the back of the head which referee Robert Byrd did not count as an official knockdown. Guzman immediately went on the attack, pinning Davis against the ropes and dropping Davis again with a body punch that Byrd ruled as a low blow, giving Davis some recovery time and a chance to make it out of the opening round.
Guzman immediately went after Davis to start the 2nd round, delivery a flurry of punches against the helpless Davis, prompting his corner to throw in the white towel, forcing Byrd to waive off the bout just 29 seconds into the second stanza.
The undefeated Guzman (31-0-1, 18KO) who probably set a boxing (weight-missing) record when he came in a whopping 9 pounds over the 135 pound lightweight limit earlier this year in a title bout, also missed the contracted 141 pound weight limit for tonight’s bout, coming in at 144.5 lbs. Davis was also above the limit, coming in at 143 pounds, making it easier for the parties to move forward with the mismatch.
American heavyweight prospect Seth Mitchell (20-0-1) kept his perfect record intact by scoring a knockout over Taurus Skyes (25-7-1). The stoppage came at the 1:42 mark of the 5th round.
The former All -American college football player came out aggressively working from the body up to head. The action slowed a little as Mitchell started to time his opponent and counter effectively in a good opening round.
Sykes landed a couple nice left hooks to the head to start the 2nd round. Mitchell started to calmly walk his opponent down repeatedly pinning him on the ropes while letting loose with combinations. Sykes caught Mitchell with a vicious right hook as the bell sounded to end the round but Mitchell remained on his feet.
Mitchell used his left jab more to set up his right hook as the action heated up in the third and fourth rounds.
Mitchell came out with even more aggression in the fifth dropping his opponent with an overhand right to the temple. Seconds later another right dropped Sykes again and this time he couldn't get back up to beat the 10 count.
Sharife "The Lion" Bogere remained undefeated with an eight-round shutout over tough journeyman Christopher Fernandez (19-11-1, 12KO). Scores were 80-72 across the board. Bogere, a 22 year old Ugandan native and Las Vegas resident, was a class above his opponent, scoring speedy combinations up and down on Fernandez throughout the bout to improve to 18-0, 11KO.
Light welterweight prospect Jesse Vargas remained undefeated with a well earned 78-74, 79-73 and 80-72 unanimous decision over hard-nosed Ramon Montano (17-9-2, 2KO) in an eight round bout. Vargas (13-0, 7KO) committed to a brutal body attack in the opening round, hoping to deflate his opponent early for a chance to be the first to stop the Montano inside the distance.
Montano fought hard to stay in the fight but was the recipient of 4-5 heavy head punches to punctuate the end of the 3rd round for Vargas, leaving Montano a bit unsteady. The light punching Montano, a past sparring partner of Floyd Mayweather Jr used his guile and toughness to survive some heavy left hooks from Vargas in round 6 and another hard push from Vargas in the eighth round.
Venezuelan Alfonso Blanco improved to 2-0 when he defeated Gustavo Medina (1-3-1) in their middleweight bout. Blanco came out aggressive and display crisp left and right hooks against his overmatched opponent. Blanco won the first two rounds easily and scored a TKO at the 2:45 mark in the third round as referee Russell Mora waived the fight off due to Medina taking too much punishment.
Next up was super bantamweight prospect Randy Caballero's (6-0) unanimous victory over Robert Guillen (5-9-3). The scores were 40-35 three times. The fight started out tactical as both fighters felt each other out. In the third round Caballero began to open up and started sitting on his shots. He displayed a stiff left jab and looked for openings to land his right hook. He was able pin Guillen in the ropes a few times and unleashed combinations to the body. In the fourth round Guillen, knowing that he was losing came out more aggressive but to no avail as he ended up walking into left and right uppercuts.
Light welterweight Jamie Kavanagh (4-0, 2KO) made short work of Jacob Thornton, scoring a TKO just 44 seconds into the first round. The Los Angeles resident, by way of Dublin, blitzed his opponent from the opening bell, working the body and head in a furious two fisted attack until Thornton (2-2, 1KO) crumpled into the corner. The Missouri resident barely beat referee Jay Nady’s ten count but did not want to continue.
MORE RESULTS TO COME…
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