July 2024 boxing recap – Shakur and Nakatani win

By Eric Armit

The Past Week in Action – 9 July 2024  

Highlights:

Shakur Stevenson retains the WBC lightweight title with a points win over Artem Harutyunyan.

Robson Conceicao wins the WBC super-featherweight title with a controversial split decision over champion O’Shaquie Foster, and there are wins for Keyshawn Davis and brother Kelvin.

IBF super-flyweight champion Fernando Martinez scores a unanimous decision over WBA champion Kazuto Ioka to unify the two titles.

Unbeaten lightweight William Zepeda goes to 31-0 with a third-round KO of Giovanni Cabrera. Ricardo Sandoval stops Angel Acosta in the tenth round.

Shane Mosley Jr outpoints Daniel Jacobs.

Reece Bellotti makes a successful defence of the Commonwealth super-featherweight title with a points won over Levi Giles and English heavyweight hope Johnny Fisher destroys Alen Babic in 36 seconds.

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Weekly statistics

Fight of the week: (Significance): Shakur Stevenson outpointing Artem Harutyunyan keeps him in the mix in a division with the potential for so many mouthwatering fights.

Fight of the week: (Entertainment): Fernando Martinez vs. Kazuto Ioka was a war all the way.

Fighter of the week: Fernando Martinez as he unifies the WBA and IBF super flyweight belts.

Punch of the week: The short right hook from Emmanuel Danso that dropped Alex Walters was a beauty.

Upset of the week: O’Shaquie Foster was favoured over Robson Conceicao but the Brazilian got the win.

Prospect watch: English heavyweight Johnny Fisher, 12-0, impressed in obliterating Alen Babic in one round.

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The Past Week in Action 15 July 2024  

Highlights:

Jaron Ennis successfully defends the IBF welterweight title as challenger David Avanesyan retires after five rounds.

Skye Nicolson retains the WBC featherweight title with points win over Dyana Vargas.

Roman Gonzalez returns to action with a tenth-round stoppage of Rober Barrera and will now decide whether to go to bantam to try to become a five-division champion or stay at super fly.

Albert Batyrgaziev stops Jono Carroll in the ninth round to win the vacant temporary (interim) WBA super-featherweight title and Muslim Gadzhimagomedov stops Zhaoxin Zhang to collect the vacant WBA Bridgerweight title.

Raymond Muratalla outpoints Tevin Farmer (below) but in an upset unranked Ugandan Sulaiman Segawa decisions WBC No 1 featherweight Roman Villa.

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Weekly statistics

Fight of the week: (Significance): The win for Jaron Ennis keeps in play the possibility of a fight with Terrence Crawford down the line.

Fight of the week: (Entertainment) Saul Sanchez and Arthur Villanueva provided outstanding entertainment.

Fighter of the week: Jaron Ennis did what was expected against David Avanesyan and Raymond Muratalla was not at his most impressive. Therefore, I go for the returning Roman Gonzalez.

Punch of the week: It’s not been a great week for thunderbolts, so I went for Jonathan Lopez’s left hook to the body, which ended Leonardo Padilla’s interest in their fight.

Upset of the week: Has to be Sulaiman Segawa’s win over WBC No 1 Ruben Villa.

Prospect watch: 21-year-old super-featherweight Jonathan Lopez is 16-0 with 12 wins by KO/TKO and scored wins over Xander Zayas and Abdullah Mason in the amateurs, so has the pedigree. 

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The Past Week in Boxing Action 23 July 2024  

Highlights:

In Tokyo, Junto Nakatani KOs Vincent Astrolabio in the first round in a WBC bantamweight title defence and Anthony Olascuaga KOs Riku Kano in three rounds to win the vacant WBO flyweight title.

Alexis Rocha outpoints previously undefeated 27-0 Santiago Dominguez at welterweight.

Carlos Canizales outpoints Ivan Garcia to win the WBC Silver light-flyweight title in Caracas and Jose Uzcategui knocks out Fernando Brito.

Brad Pauls knocks out champion Nathan Heaney to win the British title and in other fights, Chantelle Cameron outpoints Elhem Mekhaled to win the interim WBC super-lightweight title. Andrew Cain wins the British and Commonwealth bantamweight titles with a stoppage of Ashley Lane, Ekow Essuman stops Owen Cooper in ten rounds to win the WBO European welterweight title, Ezra Taylor wins the WBO European title and there are victories for Zach Parker, Solomon Dacres and Shabaz Masoud.

Amanda Serrano beats Stevie Morgan in Tampa and there are wins for Lucas Bahdi, Jake Paul and Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.  

In Costa Rica, Francisco Fonseca halts Jezreel Corrales in four rounds and former IBF and WBO minimumweight champion Yokasta Valle beats Ramandeep Kaur in two rounds.

Argentinian lightweight Alan Chaves outpoints South African Xolisani Ndongeni to go 17-0.

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Weekly statistics

Fight of the week: (Significance): The wins for Amando Serrano and Chantelle Cameron offer two chances for a huge fight between either and Katie Taylor.

Fight of the week: (Entertainment): Ekow Essuman vs. Cooper was all-action with plenty of late drama. Honorary mention to Brad Pauls vs. Nathan Heaney which also provided action and late drama.

Fighter of the week: Junto Nakatani for his one-round destruction of Vincent Astrolabio.

Punch of the week: The devastating body punch from Nakatani that finished Astrolabio was fearsome. Must mention honorary contenders in the left hook to the head from Olascuaga that flattened Riku Kano, the right to the head from Lucas Bahdi that put unbeaten Ashton Sylve face down on the canvas out cold and finally the booming right from Owen Cooper that knocked down Ekow Essuman. How Essuman got up from that escapes me.

Upset of the week: Sylve was the favourite but Lucas came from behind to get the win.

Prospect watch: Japanese former kickboxing champion Tenshin Nasukawa who reportedly had a 42-0 record, certainly showed power in crushing Jonathan Rodriguez in only his fourth pro fight.