Francisco Palacios: record, next fight and profile →
Long-time cruiserweight contender Mateusz Masternak (37-4, 26 KOs) came back into a winning column with a solid win over American import Eric Fields (24-4, 16 KOs) in a scheduled ten-rounder.
KRAKOW, POLAND - The official weigh in for tomorrow's "The Final Call" pay-per-view event was held today and all of the fighters made weight (see below). Four bouts are scheduled to air tomorrow, starting at 2:00 p.m. ET / 11:00 a.m. PT, live from Tauron Arena in Krakow, Poland. Two other fights may be shown, time permitting
Johan Duhaupas heads back to France with the biggest win of his career, pulling off a considerable upset in scoring a 10-round decision over Manuel Charr. Scores were 95-95 even and matching scores of 98-93 in favor of Duhaupas (32-2, 20KOs), who was coming off of a points loss to unbeaten Erkan Teper less than a month ago.
Puerto Rican veteran Francisco "The Wizard" Palacios (23-2, 14KOs) arrived in Moscow, Russia for his fight on Friday, April 10th - when he takes on up and coming knockout artist Dmitry Kudryashov (16-0, 16KOs). Palacios came in with coach Luis Perez and Tony Suarez, his cutman. Kudryashov is a deadly prospect and holds the WBA International cruiserweight championship. In his last fight, in November of last year, he showed his true worth a first round destruction of one time former champion and division ruler Juan Carlos Gomez. Palacios has never been stopped and both of his career defeats came to the same man, former champion Krzysztof Wlodarczyk.
WBC/WBA #6 and IBF #12 Russian cruiserweight Dmitry Kudryashov is said to be one of the hardest hitters in recent memory - with most assuming that from his perfect record (16-0, 16 KOs). However, both he, his frenetic power and untested chin have never been really checked. JC Gomez, a former WBC cruiserweight king, was one, who was considered to be a perfect gatekeeper, but he was vaporized by the Russian in less than a minute.
By Lyle Fitzsimmons - The World Wide Elite Entertainment premise is, according to its own publicity, “to right many of boxing’s wrongs” with a focus on “guiding talented but misled fighters that weren’t provided fair opportunities in the past due to managerial or promotional issues.” Its biggest flag-waver and highest-profile property is co-founder Francisco Palacios, a two-time world cruiserweight title challenger who’ll end a two-year ring hiatus on Saturday night in Orlando, Fla. There, the 37-year-old will face 38-year-old Epifanio Mendoza, who’s played the role of hard-punching gatekeeper since his days as a middleweight and has a resume dotted with former champions Chad Dawson, Jeff Lacy and Beibut Shumenov, alongside contenders BJ Flores, Luis Ortiz and Lateef Kayode. The native Colombian won five of seven fights in 2014 after competing just once last year and he has 34 knockouts in 39 career wins, but his fortunes have changed dramatically since a failed WBC light heavyweight shot at Dawson in 2007. He was 28-4-1 entering that match, but is 11-14 since.
Hala Stulecia, Wroclaw, Poland - WBC cruiserweight champion Krzysztof Wlodarczyk (47-2-1, 33KOs) retained his title with a twelve round unanimous decision over mandatory challenger Francisco Palacios (21-2, 13KOs). The scores were 116-112, 117-112, 116-113. There were no knockdowns and it was pretty much an even fight with the champion getting the edge in most rounds. Palacios was lucky to survive the tenth round after getting in trouble. The champion won a controversial split decision over Palacios last April, also in Poland. Photos by Wilheim Springer/box-info.net
Highly ranked Polish light middleweight Damian Jonak (34-0-1, 21 KOs) has kicked off a small but notable night of boxing at Hala Stulecia in Wroclaw, Poland, with a wokmanlike six-round decision over young Hungarian Laszlo Fazekas (12-3-1, 9 KOs). WBA #3, WBC #5 and IBF #14 Jonak started slowly and was tagged several times in the first but then worked his way through an upset-minded opponent to earn unanimous scores from all the judges. Nevertheless, he needs to improve much in order to be competitive with the elit of 154lb weight class. On the other hand, Jonak is 29 and in a bad need of a step-up in the nearest future not to fall into obscurity without testing himself against top-tier opponents.
by Cliff Rold - On a weekend where U.S. fans anticipate the replay of eleven long rounds and one really fast one, fan abroad are treated to two intriguing main events in the Lightweight and Cruiserweight divisions. In one, fans will be treated to a U.K. showdown between a talent well on the rise in recent years and a man trying to show he’s more than a bad knockout loss. In the other, a challenger attempts to avenge what looked like a win but was not. It’s a full day of boxing exhibiting one place where globalization can be called nothing but a success. Let’s go to the report cards.
Wroclaw, Poland - The weight are in for the big rematch in Poland. WBC cruiserweight champion Krzysztof “ El Diablo” Wlodarczyk (46-2, 33 KO) weighed in at 199-pounds, whil mandatory challenger Francisco “The Wizard” Palacios was 195-pounds. The rematch was ordered after the champion won a close and somewhat controversial twelve round decision over Palacios last year.