Weekend Boxing Results, July 8

Oubaali Shoots Down Villanueva’s Third Title Chance

Arthur Villanueva is now 0-3 in attempts at winning a world title, and it is very likely his career will forever stay that way. This weekend, France’s Nordine Oubaali made him quit at the end of the sixth round, in a fight in which he was getting thoroughly outclassed throughout. Oubaali, the defending WBC bantamweight champion walked, his Filipino challenger down from the onset of the fight, dropped him with an uppercut in the sixth round, but couldn’t stop him with the flurry of punches he unleashed soon after. Still, after the sixth-round onslaught Villanueva and his corner had seen enough, and Villanueva opted not to get off the stool going into the seventh.

@nordineoubaali a brillamment conservé sa ceinture mondiale WBC des coq en dominant A.Villanueva, arrêté à l'appel de la 7e reprise à Nur-Sultan .@Elansportif @SaidTaghmaoui @SouadSoulimani @TopRankBagnolet @Oubaali9 @Me2s75 @MediaSpoliS @Ali_Oubaali pic.twitter.com/Y9BvSlWwEw

— Le retour de BOXE Anglaise News (@RetourBoxe) July 7, 2019

While the 30-year-old Villanueva should probably accept he’ll never be a world champion and call it a career, Oubaali has his sights set on some big names at 118. The undefeated southpaw whose record now stands at 16-0 with twelve knockouts said after the fight that he wants the winner of Inoue-Donaire, though he will likely have to fight former champion Luis Nery (who lost his belt for missing weight, not for a loss) next. While Oubaali looked good in the Villanueva fight, Inoue or Nery would both be a whole different ballgame. Naoya “The Monster” Inoue may be the pound-for-pound best puncher in boxing -- Deontay Wilder included -- and Nery has stopped 23 of 29 opponents including his last ten. Oubaali’s suspect defense would surely be tested against either KO artist.

Zhankosh Turarov Stops Mauro Godoy in Three Rounds

Fighting in his native Kazakhstan on their “Capital City Day,” local hero Zhankosh ”Da Kazakh Kid” Turarov stopped Argentina’s Mauro Godoy in the third round. Godoy had only been stopped once in his career, back in 2015, so this was a good win for Turarov coming off a thirteen-month layoff.

Turarov was all over Godoy from the onset, as it was clear that he would walk down and stop Godoy eventually. Still, when you look at the finish it doesn’t seem like the Argentinean was hurt, just that he recognized he was overmatched and opted to stay down. It was a disappointing ending and didn’t let us really see how good Turarov is or could be.

Still, Turarov is now 24-0 with 17 knockouts, and the victory gave him the (largely irrelevant) WBO Inter-Continental Super Lightweight title. At 28 years old, it’s time for the Kazakhstani to step up and face somebody good at 140. Luckily, in April he signed with MTK Global, a company that represents big name European fighters like Tyson Fury, Mick Conlan and Carl Frampton. We’ll see if they can get him a decent fight sometime soon.

Rozanski KOs Ugonoh in Controversial Fight Ending

Getting hit while down is a very tricky situation for referees to deal with. You have famous incidents like the Roy Jones Jr.-Montell Griffin fight that handed Jones his first-ever loss. Riddick Bowe got a no-contest for hitting a downed Buster Mathis Jr., and more recently we’ve seen GGG hit a downed David Lemieux but suffer no consequences.

Clearly referees have a lot of discretion when dealing with strikes to a downed fighter, but this weekend they got one wrong. On Saturday, Poland’s Lukasz Rozanski dropped Izuagbe Ugonoh once in the fourth, then once again in the same round. But, on the second knockdown he clearly hit Ugonoh while he was down, which caused Ugbonoh to go from his knees to flat on his back. The referee apparently didn’t mind and counted out Ugonoh, who had been a big favorite going into the fight.

A shocker in Poland: unheralded Łukasz Różanski knocks out Izu Ugonoh....with late punch, when Ugonoh is on his knees. #boxing pic.twitter.com/7DZnYzvldU

— przemek garczarczyk (@garnekmedia) July 6, 2019

Obviously, watching a slowed replay isn’t the same as making a split-second decision at the moment, but this one seemed both blatant and fight-altering. Ugonoh would have a legitimate case if he wants the result overturned.

Sebastian Formella Decisions Thulani Mbenge to Take IBO ‘World’ Welterweight Title

Another fighter pulling an upset in his home nation, albeit a far less controversial one, was Germany’s Sebastian Formella winning the IBO “World” Welterweight title by taking a close but unanimous 116-112, 115-112, 114-113 decision over South Africa’s Thulani Mbenge. This was the first time Mbenge had fought outside of South Africa, and his first fight outside of his home nation was his first loss in 16 fights. With the win, Formella moved to 21-0 with 10 knockouts, but has never fought outside of Germany. If he’s going to make something of himself -- he’s already 32 years old -- he’s going to have to travel outside of Deutschland sooner rather than later.