Review of the Fights (13/08/23)

So this week has come to a close and it’s now time to look back at all the fights which have taken place over the weekend. I only saw the main event of the two American shows but I saw most of the undercard for the Matchroom show so we’ll discuss that. Let’s get into it.

The first fight I caught over the weekend was Campbell Hatton taking on another journeyman on his journey to an area title. He has shown improvement so far but he really should have stayed amateur as he needs the development. Matchroom should keep getting him out on these shows but I don’t expect much more from Hatton. Johnny Fisher was up next on the card and he was fighting for his first professional title. His opponent started off the fight getting staggered by the first jab Fisher threw which wasn’t a great sign and he ultimately went down. However he ended up surviving and giving Fisher a solid fight before Fisher landed a bomb and it was all over. He is a solid boxer but unlike Eddie is trying to convince us I don’t think he’s got an extremely bright future ahead. He’ll win some more lower level titles and give us some fun domestic fights but that’s about it if I’m being honest. He’s a good undercard fighter though and I’d like to see him fight again. Filip Hrgovic and Dempsey McKean were up next but unfortunately it wasn’t a great fight. Hrgovic looked flat once again and it was a boring encounter. Neither man would maintain a high enough work rate to give us any action so it dragged on until a monster shot landed in the championship rounds. Hrgovic can still give the top guys certain problems but he needs to really work on his gas tank. The last fight before the main event was Chisora vs Washington which was a very scrappy co main which ultimately was all that great. Washington clearly did enough according to nearly everyone however Chisora was inexplicably given the nod. Unfortunately that’s not a surprise but at least it gives Chisora a win that he can get out of the game on. He won’t retire but he should really consider it as he’s way past his best now and he’s never reaching that top level again.

Anthony Joshua finally took centre stage next against late replacement Robert Helenius but it wasn’t the performance he needed. He didn’t look sharp enough as he was struggling to avoid Helenius’ jab and that marked up his face to a degree and also had nose bleeding from early on. His combinations looked solid but he was struggling to land his bigger shots. AJ admitted so himself to Derrick James between rounds and it just shows that AJ has lost a step offensively. He ultimately got a fantastic knockout to end the night in the 7th but that wasn’t enough to over shine a lacklustre performance. There’s two positives I can take away from this performance and that is one, that AJ can take away an opponent’s right hand and two that he will gain a lot of confidence in his offensive arsenal given the fact that his coach told him to keep trying for the knockout and he did to great result and just the fact he got a knockout will boost his confidence. Taking away Helenius’ right hand is one thing however taking away Wilder’s will be another. Helenius got a bit gunshy as he was wary of AJ’s big shots however Wilder won’t have that mindset. AJ still has a big chance against Wilder with his higher boxing IQ and great power however his leaky defence might just cost him on the night.

The next fight I caught was on the PBC’s network and it was to decide the new holder of Naoya Inoue’s vacated IBF belt. Emmanuel Rodriguez faced Melvin Lopez over twelve and Rodriguez simply put on a stellar performance. One could look at him after the fight and wonder why he took so much damage in a great performance however despite the head butt that caused his eye to swell up, he didn’t take too many punches. He even put together a great 12th round dropping Lopez 3 times to close out the fight and win himself a world title. So now that all the belts Inoue vacated have been claimed we can start to get unifications sorted and one I would like to see is Rodriguez vs Moloney. It won’t happen but it would be an interesting fight and one I would definitely watch.

The last fight I caught over the weekend was probably the best and that was Emanuel Navarrete vs Oscar Valdez. This had been hyped up as a modern day classic with Morales and Barrera being present to hopefully witness a fight as great as theirs. Unfortunately it wasn’t that but it was a really fun fight that I throughly enjoyed even at 5am. Valdez was clearly looking for the left hook from early on and it almost seemed like he abandoned any attempt at boxing and just searched for that one punch to end it all. It was fun for the fight but Navarrete’s extremely high work rate and surprising accuracy really took a toll on Valdez who sustained the damage many claim AJ took earlier in the night. Credit to Valdez though as there was never any quit from the former drugs cheat who battled on the final bell to all our enjoyment. Navarrete really surprised me in this fight as he showed better defence than I thought he had as well as an actually legit boxing IQ. He is definitely among the best champions in the sport but I don’t think he cracks my P4P rankings just yet. The fight wasn’t that competitive but it was a ton of fun and worth a watch for sure.

So that was this weekend of boxing in a nutshell. It wasn’t as great as the week of the 29th of July but as for the rest of the year it was a pretty solid week. It gave us a lot of fun moments and opened up some new possibilities for the future. As for next week there is absolutely nothing in unfortunately but the weekend after promises to be an entertaining one if nothing else.