By Terence Dooley & Alexey Sukachev
Dublin—It took him pure hell to cross over, but in the end Belfast's Jamie Conlan survived two knockdowns in round seven and bitter facial damage to overcome Mexican Junior Granados and retained his WBO I/C super flyweight title in one of the best British fights this year (but held in Dublin).
WBO #14 Conlan (14-0, 8 KOs) made it through with a very close unanimous decision: 95-93, 95-93, and 96-92.
Conlan, 28, was thought to be a better technician against fiery but not as subtle Mexican. He indeed was forced to show his boxing skills rather than fighting spirit early on. Conlan was moving backwards, laterally, ducking Granados aggression, forcing him to move out of his comfort zone. But hard-charging and sneaky-punching Mexican was able to land some blows not only to remain active but also to disturb the Irishman. His success culminated in a bigger right cross that forced Conlan to do a little dance in the ring in the fourth. BoxNation had it 3-1 in rounds for the Mexican at that time.
Conlan began to use his jab, sometimes double jab, and to time Junior's surges to take rounds five and six, but the seventh turned a fight into a horrific brawl. Conlan opened up and was seriously hurt, and Granados (13-3-1, 8 KOs) immediately sensed the smelled blood. He decked Conlan at the end of the second minute of round seven, then did his best to damage the local hero as much as he could. Conlan stood wobbly under fire, wilted but somehow went down on a left uppercut only at the very end of the stanza. His head a mess, he summoned up all his spirit to get up at the eighth and to survive the round.
Perception was that Granados would go for the kill at the beginning of round eight. Amazingly, it was Conlan who re-invented himself following a big beating in the previous round. Once again on his back-foot he jabbed, moved and showed (when necessary), while Granados was too concentrated on one finishing touch. It didn't come in the eighth, nor did it come in the ninth and the tenth rounds. Granados was aggressive but his aggression at the very end proved to be useless, and he couldn't capitalize on a thunderous success in the seventh.
The Irishman took the last three rounds and effectively retaine his title with all character and will he could present. Granados has only himself to blame for loss. BoxingScene had it 95-93 - also for the Irishman.
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Lanky Birmingham's Tommy Langford made an impressive international debut in his first fight outside of the UK. The rising middleweight used his stature and crisp jab coupled with solid technique to unduce a stoppage on the Mexican fighter Julio Cesar Avalos (15-5, 7 KOs) late into the fourth.
Langford was just 9-0, 1 KO, at the start of his career but scored two TKOs recently, making himself a huge favorite against little-known Avalos, who was fighting out of his homeland for the very first time. And a favorite he was. Lamgford, standing tall at 6'0'' went after Avalos, his jabe preventing the Mexican from finding his range. He landed jabs, added hooks and crossed while Avalos' rare attempts were successfully avoided in the first.
Avalos got more aggressive in the second but he also piad a price for all his defensive wrongdoings. Langford didn't waste his time but he was also patient and resilient. He continued to stalk the Mexican in the third, and he punched him at will in the fourth. He continued to do pummelling with an ever-increasing tempo and landed several flush bombs on Avalos, who started wilting under fire and becoming defenseless. Finally referee Steve Grey has seen enough and waved it off at 2;41 of the fourth.
With this solid win, Langdord improves his record to 13-0, 4 KOs, and acquires a vacant WBO intercontinental middleweight title, while Avalos is back to Mexico for more ring education.
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Former WBO European lightweight champion and Terry Flanagan's latest victim Stephen Ormond (18-2, 9 KOs) came back into the winning column and easily damaged Polish journeyman Jacek Wylezol (12-10, 7 KOs), stopping him at 1:47 of the second round.
The Rock didn't waste any time, jumping on Wylezol, who was under heavy fire from the get go. The Pole was limited to occasional jabs at best being pummeled all around the ring for a round and a half. Ormond used his left hooks to the body in multiple combinations, finally rocking Wylezol, then added a dozen more before the referee intervened despite the fact Wylezol never went down.
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Dublin lightweight Declan Geraghty earned his second career TKO with the third-round stoppage of overmatched Latvian Dinars Skripkins (2-3). Both fighters were marked in the opener, with blood dripping out of the Geraghty's cut left eyelid, while Skripkins had his right eye reddened. Geraghty spent the first round on his back foot. He accelerated in the second, then started to do damage in the third, dropping Skripkins three times with his speedy combos to score a halt at 2:54 of the round. Skripkins, who debuted just three months ago and was stopped in one in both of jis UK appearances.
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23-year old Belfast native Ryan Burnett paved his road to the national bantamweight championship with the second-round stoppage of Hungarian Csaba Kovacs (7-6, 4 KOs).
Kovacs has previously fought both in Hungary and in the UK with some surprising wins on foreign soil. Against Burnett he had his mild share of success but the Irishman was faster and better anyway. After a solid round one, he continued to press Kovacs and to land with his right hand. One of it collided with the Hungarian's left shoulder, forcing the latter to cry in pain. Kovacs continued fighting but pain limited him only to the defensive. A bit later he was pushed and punished at the ropes after allegedly trying to signalize a stoppage. A few punches after that the fight was finally stopped with an injured Hungarian being in no position to continue. Burnett improves to solid 10-0, with 8 KOs.
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Matthew Macklin’s co-promotion with Frank Warren at Dublin’s National Stadium featured an evenly fought fight between Dublin’s Anthony Fitzgerald (11st 5lbs 8oz) and Kieron Gray (11st 5lbs 9oz).
They went toe-to-toe throughout their scheduled eight-threes contest, but the action was often messy—leading to a few nip-and-tuck rounds that could have gone either way.
Fitzgerald is 3-2 in his last five; the two losses came against Hassan N'Dam N'Jikam (L10) and Gary O’Sullivan (L KO 1), but he bounced back from the O’Sullivan reverse with a six-round decision win over John Brennan in March.
Gray is a journeyman, but the Telford-based boxer has posted a few wins in recent times, beating the undefeated Wayne Alwan Arab and Arthif Daniel courtesy of a brace of four-round decisions. He looked confident, gave his opponent a tough night and was right in the fight throughout.
Referee David Irving scored it 77—75 for Fitzgerald (now 18-7, 4 KOs), who lost a point in the last round for hitting Gray (8-40-1, one sole stoppage win) behind the head.