The Fight Site Boxing Preview, April 8th
Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images
Despite losing its best fight - Kenshiro Teraji’s anticipated light flyweight unification with Jonathan Gonzalez- this Easter weekend is still chock full of action. A bit too full, with three cards up against each other directly, but what can you do. With three rising stars in headline action alongside a raft of prospects, plus Teraji still headlining a strong card from Japan, let’s dive in.
Jesse Rodriguez vs Cristian Gonzalez
Flyweight
‘Bam’ Rodriguez lit up 2022, bursting out of nowhere to dominate Carlos Cuadras and Srisaket Sor Rungvisai and establish himself as a top-level player in the superfly division. Having done that, he’s decided to let his brother, Joshua Franco, have a run at the belts in that division, and is stepping back down to flyweight here. There’s a vacant WBO title on the line.
Gonzalez isn’t as big a name as the two mentioned above, but he’s a perfectly credible opponent and decent challenge for a new belt in a new division. His only loss was an early one to the skilled Angel Ayala, and although he hasn’t faced world-level tests since then, he’s built himself up in both experience and skills.
What makes this interesting is that he displays some of the same tools that Israel Gonzalez- Bam’s last opponent- used to make his life more difficult than expected. Rodriguez made his name with flashy circling footwork that bamboozeled his big-name foes, but Gonzalez refused to be cowed by it. He was consistently able to turn with him, and had intercepting shots ready to make those positions uncomfortable to get to. That led Rodriguez to commit to a different sort of fight, using his head movement and active guard while stood in the pocket to win exchanges and tough it out when needed. We’ve seen both things from the upcoming Gonzalez too, and he’ll seek to limit Bam’s movement in a similar way.
The big difference between Cristian Gonzalez and Israel Gonzalez is that Israel threw plenty of volume, whatever Bam was doing, and that meant biting on feints was less punishing, because he was throwing something whether he was fooled or not. Cristian has, to date, been rather more picky and precise with his punches. That’s normally a good thing, of course, but if Bam’s slick range games have him falling short with one shot, he may not be as ready with follow-up shots to cover the mistake.
All-in-all, you would expect Bam to win this one, but don’t be surprised if he has to work for it.
The rest of the card is very strong. There’s another world title fight, with Murdojon Akhmadaliev defending his IBF and WBA super-bantamweight belts against Marlon Tapales. Akhmadaliev had previously shown signs of maybe falling in love with his power, giving up balance and set-ups in favour of the one big shot, but last time out he put in a superb controlled performance against Ronny Rios, largely with just his lead hand after he injured his power left. He bit down to find the knockout in the 12th too, so he’s got guts to go with the skill. Tapales is a good veteran and former bantamweight beltholder, but if the champion is as smooth here as he was there, he should find holes in the challenger’s game. Tapales is game, aggressive, and has some nice attacking skills, but he gets too rough and out of shape to think he’ll beat a poised operator with real power.
Beyond that, the exciting 154lber Israil Madrimov returns from a bit of a layoff against Raphael Igbokwe, and featherweight prospect Raymond Ford makes a big jump in level, stepping in with former super-bantamweight champion Jessie Magdaleno.
Shakur Stevenson vs Shuichiro Yoshino
Lightweight
Stevenson makes his step up to lightweight here, having blown the super-featherweight limit before his otherwise-impressive win against Robson Conceicao. This fight isn’t for a title in the new division, but it’s a decent test against a solid opponent. Although he’s never fought outside of Japan or against a non-Japanese opponent, Yoshino’s most recent wins, over Masayoshi Nakatani and Masayuki Ito, mean he’s got world-level experience.
Style-wise, he’s an aggressive fighter with a lot of pro-active head movement and a good line in bodywork. He’s also willing to get rough and borderline dirty, which could stand him in good stead, since Stevenson lost his temper against Conceicao when he did the same. All that said, Stevenson should win fairly comfortably, most notably because of one big flaw Yoshino shows: for all his active head movement, he rarely actually moves forward, or throws, before coming back on center line. It’s quite a metronomic movement, tik-tok left and right on a predictable pattern, and you have to think someone with Stevenson’s timing is going to start catching him mid-movement pretty much immediately. That’ll make it hard for Yoshino to get any real work going without being punished for it. He’ll find this one hard.
It’s a card of exciting prospects beyond the main event. Keyshawn Davis, an Olympic medalist and superb talent, should be too good for Anthony Yigit if he’s anything like the fighter we think he is, but it’s a good step up and test for him. Jared Anderson’s heavyweight scrap with George Arias should be entertaining, and we’ll also see Bruce Carrington, Troy Isley, and others.
Sebastian Fundora vs Brian Mendoza
Super-middleweight
Of the three American prospects on show this weekend, Fundora is the one with the least expected of him- but he’s already made a habit of upsetting expectations, and even if he hits a ceiling someday, boy is he fun. The man looks like he should be a wispy outboxer, yet fights like an immovable, unstoppable tank, a furious barrage of whipping punches in the pocket and the clinch. His unreasonable height and length make it very hard to block all his angles, even if he himself doesn’t step around, and he seems to have a chin for days on top of a solid guard with good catch-and-counter abilities. He’s just a nasty opponent to try to exchange with.
Mendoza probably hasn’t got either the style to keep out of his way, nor the volume or skill to live with him on the inside, so barring a really solid shot or two, Fundora should be favourite here. But Mendoza is also no mug, he’ll be here to fight, and it should be a good scrap at the very least.
The most notable fight on the undercard sees Brandun Lee try to prove his own prospect potential with a solid step up in class, against Pedro Campa (most recently seen losing to Teofimo Lopez last year). Lee’s sharp jab and accurate bodywork should see him beat Campa, who tends to leave himself open to that kind of thing, very much a fighter who’ll walk through fire to give some out. But Campa will certainly bring a fight, and Lee wouldn’t be the first clean, technically-correct fighter who comes undone when a scruffy-but-skilled opponent comes at him with intent. Especially when they’re a bit straight-lined, which might be the case for Lee. We’ll find out a lot about his world-level ambitions here.
Also in action will be featherweight scrapper Luis Reynaldo Nunez, in against Christian Olivo Barrera. Nunez has a tendency to be drawn into wars that he probably doesn’t need to, which means he’ll hit a ceiling at some point if he doesn’t clean that up, but it also makes him worth watching, and he’s got a fun style, committing to explosive counterpunches as much as he can.
Kenshiro Teraji vs Anthony Olascuaga
Light flyweight
Being a Japanese card, this one’s at 3am Eastern on Saturday, so readers in the Americas may not be around. But Europeans may want to tune in over breakfast, if you can. As mentioned, the headliner here isn’t what we wished for, with Jonathan Gonzalez contracting pneumonia and having to pull out, but there’s some decent interest on the card.
They did manage to rescue the main event by recruiting Olascuaga, a 24-year-old American, but this is a huge jump in levels. He’ll be hoping to repeat Bam’s jump in levels last year, and… well, never say never. He does have some skill, on the evidence so far- in particular, he looks a sharp and creative puncher, and he’s comfortable both on the front foot and going backwards.
Despite his lack of any testing opposition until then, though, Bam had (1) a reasonable, if short, amateur pedigree, and (2) several years and multiple fights building his skills as a pro. That doesn’t hold true of Olascuaga. And you can see the holes in his game that Kenshiro might exploit. Most notably, he holds a static high guard, fairly wide. That leaves him open to both body shots and jabs, and Kenshiro is unlikely to let that slide. Olascuaga’s footwork is also, while perfectly competent for a novice, seemingly very much set to let the opponent take the initiative, and respond. He also tends to get off-balance a bit as he comes forward. Against the kind of movement Teraji showed against Kyoguchi - very sharp, constant lateral movement with variations in timing and well-disguised changes in distance- that’s likely to see him chasing ghosts until he walks into something he can’t deal with.
There’s another world title on the line on the card, with Takuma Inoue (brother of Naoya) up for a vacant bantamweight title, against the very veteran Liborio Solis. At 41, you’d think Solis is biting off more than he can chew here, what with last having won at world level 10 years ago and not having any seriously testing opposition since losing to Rigondeaux 2 years ago. He does have savvy and defensive craft, but Inoue’s jab and bodywork should be sharp enough to win him the fight.
Perhaps the reason this card had to be rescued, by hook or by crook, is the boxing debut of kickboxing legend Tenshin Nasukawa. We’ve seen him in the ring before, of course, when he made the poorly-thought-out decision to treat his exhibition bout with Floyd Mayweather as a serious contest and got demolished by a man twice his size hitting him in earnest. This won’t be anything like that- this time, he’s dipping his toe in the water against a regional-level local opponent. Still, it’s of interest. The other fight of note is Kiko Martinez, taking his late career tour on the road again, against Japanese-title level opponent Reiya Abe in a featherweight eliminator.