Woooooow!
Sam Maxwell was losing and being taunted by his opponent all fight and then did this with 10 second to go!
Incredible knockout pic.twitter.com/qM069RZnQK— Boxing on BT Sport (@BTSportBoxing) March 23, 2019
Pulev Stops Dinu After Getting Cut and Hurt, Then Ruins Victory With #Metoo Moment
Kubrat Pulev stopped Bogdan Dinu in the seventh round of a wild back and forth heavyweight battle, that might -- emphasis on might -- have fans willing to accept a fight between him and Anthony Joshua, seeing how Pulev is the No. 1 contender for Joshua’s IBF belt. Well, it might have if Pulev didn’t make the most boneheaded post-fight move we’ve seen from a boxer in a very long time.
The reason Pulev’s win garnered so much excitement is two-fold: It was an inspiring come from behind win and a dramatic knockout. Pulev looked vulnerable as he was staggered and cut by Dinu in the fourth round, but never went down and was able to stage a huge comeback in the fifth. In the seventh, Pulev landed a ton of big punches before he dropped Dinu with what was deemed a shot to the back of the head. Dinu stayed down for a while in an attempt to catch his equilibrium, but was still hurt from the previous onslaught of punches when he got up, and was quickly stopped shortly after.
After the fight, Pulev was interviewed by an attractive female reporter and thought it would be a good idea kiss her on the lips after she was done with her questions. Immediately, people went nuts and slammed him on social media for what was essentially a sexual assault of the journalist. It’s really baffling in the era of #metoo that we still have athletes doing stuff like this to female reporters, even if 37-year-old Bulgarian heavyweight boxers might not understand modern day progressivism. Still, considering the flak that Cam Newton got for insinuating a female reporter couldn’t understand football, it’s safe to say that any potential Pulev fight will be marred by this decision.
Magdaleno Beats Ramos in Dull Affair
After Jessie Magdaleno beat Rico Ramos via a unanimous 97-93, 98-92, 99-91 decision, ESPN’s Steve Kim tweeted “Magdaleno didn't do that much... Ramos did much less. That's my quick recap of that fight.”
Fighting as a featherweight for the first time ever, Magdaleno was not especially impressive. However, Magdaleno’s victory did show an ability to recover from his loss to Isaac Dogboe, a fight that was almost a full year ago.
Magdaleno has many excuses he could reach for, ranging from ring rust or wanting to go rounds at the new weight class, to tentativeness after being stopped by Dogboe. For Ramos, the issue is far simpler; at 31 years old, the 36-fight veteran is gun-shy, shot, and should call it a career.
Buatsi Stops Conroy in Three, Looks to Fight on Joshua Undercard
Joshua Buatsi had stopped his last three opponents in the first round going into his fight against Liam Conroy, but Conroy had never been knocked down in 21 professional prizefights. In what was supposed to be a bit of a test for Buatsi, or at least of Buatsi’s power, Conroy could only make it to the third round before getting dropped twice and ultimately stopped.
With the victory, Buatsi showed why so many people think so highly of the light heavyweight contender, who now holds the British light heavyweight title and is being spoken of as a guy fellow British light heavyweight Anthony Yarde wants no part of. Buatsi’s star power could continue to grow if he gets a fight on the Anthony Joshua-Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller undercard, which is what he’s looking to do.
Lamont Peterson Retires after TKO Loss to Sergey Lipinets
Sergey Lipinets needed an impressive victory over Lamont Peterson to convince boxing fans he has a chance to compete for a title at 147, despite losing his 140-pound title to Mikey Garcia, who looked less than impressive at welterweight in a loss to Errol Spence Jr.
Mission accomplished.
Lipinets became the third man to ever stop Peterson, joining Spence Jr. and the hard-punching Lucas Matthysse, when he knocked Peterson into the ropes, then battered and dropped him, forcing Peterson’s corner to throw in the towel in the 10th round.
Peterson started well, but the 34-year-old veteran of 41 professional prizefights faltered and tired as the fight went on. Peterson was hurt in the seventh, eighth and ninth rounds before he was stopped in the 10th, and was likely trailing on the scorecards.
In the ring after the loss, Peterson announced his retirement, a wise move considering he was stopped in his last two fights and would have been placed at the bottom of the welterweight ladder with this loss.
Anthony Peterson Fights to a Split Draw in Hometown
While he fared better than his brother, Anthony Peterson could not beat Argenis Mendez in what was essentially a hometown bout for him in the Washington, D.C. suburbs. Instead, Peterson and Mendez fought to a split draw, with one judge seeing the bout 96-94 for each fighter, and the third judge scoring the bout 95-95.
This was a rough outcome for Peterson. Mendez was 4-3 in his last seven fights, and Peterson has been so inactive that he really needed to start winning to make a run at a title, assuming that’s what he wants.
I say “assuming that’s what he wants” because his bizarrely blasé attitude about both his extended time away from the ring and about this outcome do not inspire confidence in Peterson’s desire for greatness. After the draw, Peterson said “I’m not that disappointed, because I didn’t lose. The judges saw it a draw. I’m not mad about it.”
That’s a very atypical response from a prizefighter. Maybe Peterson, who spent much of his life homeless, has too much perspective on what boxing means in the greater scheme of life for his own good.
Andrew Selby Knocked Out in Mexico
Lee Selby’s younger brother, Andrew, a 2012 British Olympian suffered a shocking fifth-round KO loss to Julio Cesar Martinez Aguilar in Mexico this weekend. Selby was dropped from a left hook to the liver, took a knee and found himself unable to get up before the referee hit 10. This was a huge upset, in a fight that flew so under the radar that nobody outside of Mexico could see it.
Charlie Edwards takes Wide Decision Victory over Angel Moreno
Charlie Edwards kept his WBC flyweight title by cruising to a unanimous, shutout, 120-107, 120-107, 120-107 decision victory over Angel Moreno. After the fight, he tweeted a nice photo of his mom wearing his WBC belt, which was touching considering his mother has battled cancer and served as the inspiration for his winning the title.
Sediri’s Instant Karma KO Loss Makes Yahoo.com Frontpage
And finally, the front page of Yahoo.com featured boxing this weekend, pointing to French boxer Sabri Sediri’s last second KO loss to Sam Maxwell, which saw Sediri showboat in the last round of a fight he had all but won, only to suffer a shocking KO in the last 12 seconds of the fight. Both fighters were 10-0 before the fight, so this loss could have a much bigger impact in the future than simply being used as a lesson for trainers to show young boxers about why you never showboat like this.