Azat Hovhannisya wasted no punches and deafted Franklin Manzanilla by KO. What an unbelievable performance by Azat pic.twitter.com/xNryHAhQ5V
— Golden Boy (@GoldenBoyBoxing) September 6, 2019
Hovhannisyan Walks through Manzanilla in Four
On a terrible weekend for boxing -- it seems that everyone decided they should wait until the Mexican holiday weekend -- the most relevant matchup was between dual knockout artists and Rey Vargas fight losers, Franklin Manzanilla and Azat Hovhannisyan. But what looked like a fun matchup on paper was instead a rout for the 31-year-old Armenian. Hovhannisyan seemed to be the only fighter with real power, as his shots backed up Manzanilla. In the fourth round, Hovhannisyan overpowered his opponent, dropped him, and Manzanilla opted to stay on a knee for the full 10-second count.
After the fight, the Freddie Roach-trained Hovhannisyan called out WBO 122 pound champion Emanuel Navarrete. That fight would match a guy with 15 knockouts in 18 wins against a guy who has 24 knockouts in 28 wins. Undoubtedly, that version of “puncher versus puncher” would be better than this weekend’s was.
Jorge Linares Returns from Skid with Easy Decision Victory
Looking to put the “Lomachenko ruined him” narrative behind him after his bad KO loss to Pablo Cesar Cano in January, this weekend Jorge Linares travelled to Japan and took an easy decision victory over Filipino Al Toyogon. Toyogon was 10-4 before the fight, in a nation where guys can easily rack up wins over desperate fighters taking paychecks with no real boxing abilities. So, while a wide 100-89, 100-90, 99-90 decision win is great, the win should absolutely not stop Linares’ talk about retiring.
Pedro Taduran Wins IBF Minimumweight Title
Pedro Taduran was dropped in the first round of his fight against then-undefeated Samuel Salva but overcame that rough moment to win the IBF’s vacant 105 pound title when the fellow Filipino challenger didn’t come off his stool at the beginning of the fifth round. (The referee ordered the bout stopped, and Salva was stretchered out). Outside of the knockdown, the 22-year-old Taduran’s aggression was too much for Salva, who resorted to throwing head butts, for which he lost a point in the fourth round. With the win, he moved to 14-2 with 11 knockouts, while Salva fell to 17-1.
Roman Picks up Second Straight Unanimous Decision in Mexico since Berchelt Loss
Since losing to Miguel Berchelt in November, Miguel Roman has fought twice in Juarez, Mexico and picked up two decision wins. In March, he beat Ramiro Blanco, and this weekend he beat Tomas Rojas. Roman took a unanimous, 117-111, 117-111, 116-112 decision, but that’s not the whole story. See, Roman was always known as a knockout puncher. Before the Berchelt fight, he had stopped 11 of his last 12 opponents. It’s great that Roman is beating lesser fighters in Mexico, but he should be stopping them. The fact that he isn’t may be more telling than the fact that he keeps on winning.