Maidana Crushes Cayo In Six

Las Vegas, Nevada - Marcos Maidana (28-1, 27 KO) knocked out Victor Manuel Cayo (24-1, 16 KO) with a sweet body shot in the sixth-round to end a very entertaining contest controlled largely by the Argentinean knockout machine.

Cayo started well, staying disciplined on the outside and winning the opening round, despite Harold Lederman giving it to Maidana. The second started off pretty much the same, until Maidana began to find his helpless target, who crumbled under a rocket right in the second.

Maidana could smell blood and stalked Cayo to every corner of the ring as he tried to end the fight there and then. Cayo however, landed the cleaner punches in the round, but Maidana's greater activity topped every bit of good work Cayo did in the third.

Cayo gave up fighting on the back-foot and joined Maidana in the center of the ring for a brawl that had an air of Arreola-Minto about it, but half the weight. Maidana, acting as the thinner Arreola, was catching Cayo, who played Minto pretty well, flush with nearly every single power punch thrown, but Cayo was game as he managed to weather the onslaught to survive the fourth and began to get back into the fight in the fifth.

Maidana calmed down at the beginning of the sixth, which sent Cayo negatively into retreat, which ultimately proved to be his downfall. Maidana only needed to land one crisp body shot, and that was it. Cayo's resilience had been broken by something relatively new to Maidana's various choice of weapons, as he's become a much improved body puncher. The scores at the time of the stoppage were 49-45, 49-45 and 47-47, which shows that Cayo was competitive in one judge's eye.

Maidana is primed for a title tilt against Amir Khan, but I highly doubt that Team Khan will want anything to do with Maidana after this performance, which I rank up there with Ortiz. Maidana is definitely a top 10 junior welterweight, maybe even top 5, so the future is bright for the Argentinean, who could face Devon Alexander if Khan backs out.

For Victor Cayo, he can return home with his head held high. He gave a credible performance, slugging it out for six rounds against a fierce puncher in Maidana, who's up there with Ediwn Valero and Arthur Abraham as the pound-4-pound biggest puncher in the sport. I wouldn't be surprised to see Cayo challenging for a title again, but I don't think it will be anytime soon.

BTBC House Fighter Daniel Jacobs (19-0, 16 KO) kept up his impressive run for our House Fighters as he destroyed overmatched and an overweight Jose Miguel Berrio (20-5, 12 KO) who quit on his stool after only one round of action. It was a stay busy fight for Jacobs, who'll be looking to make big strides in 2010.

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Guzman vs. Funeka In Jeopardy as Guzman Fails Weight... Again

We've been here before. At the weigh-in ahead of his hotly anticipated rematch with Ali Funeka, Joan Guzman (29-0-1, 17 KO) staggeringly failed to make weight by nine pounds at the Hard Rock Hotel, tipping the scales at 144 lbs.

Cast your minds back to September 2008, where Guzman unprofessionally failed weight ahead of another HBO date, this time against Nate Campbell. The consequences were much bigger than anticipated, with Nate Campbell filing his bankruptcy shortly after the fight.

The IBF could award Ali Funeka the belt, or make it inaccessible for Joan Guzman if the fight goes ahead, as the South African weighed-in on the lightweight limit, 135. Guzman's purse should be withheld, but it's highly likely that the fight won't go ahead, as promoter Gary Shaw whispered to BoxingScene.

Both Marcos Maidana and Victor Cayo made weight ahead of their light welterweight clash, both weighing in at 140 pounds.

Guzman has two hours to lose the weight, which is virtually impossible. If there's a breakthrough, it'll be below.

***A deal was struck between camps allowing the fight to go on – providing that Guzman does not weigh more than 150 lbs. tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. If Funeka defeats the overweight Guzman, he will also be allowed to bring the IBF lightweight title home to South Africa.***

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Charlie 21er, Live at Fight Night Club

by Charlie 21er

Golden Boy’s Fight Night Club has proven to be a huge success.  Club Nokia in downtown Los Angeles sold out Thursday night for its first card of the year.

The round card girls were hot, the fights were decent, and the beer was expensive.  From beginning to end, the action lasted about 3 and a half hours—not bad for a $20 ticket.

Victor Ortiz was the main draw Thursday night as he got in rounds against an overmatched Hector Alatorre, a blown up light welterweight who had lost six of his last seven fights.

Ortiz, Ventura, CA, has been clocking rounds and attempting to raise his stock again after a hard loss to Marcos Maidana and a questionable post-fight interview last year.  And clocking rounds was all he did against Alatorre whom he had hurt in the second and sixth rounds of a 10 round bout.  In fact, Ortiz seemed to possess the skill and power to finish his man at all times during the bout, but opted to take the fight the full 10 rounds instead.  When the bell rang for the tenth round, the fighters came out, touched gloves and immediately went at it.  Ortiz put his combinations together finally and pushed forward, stopping his man in 51 seconds of the final round with a perfect right uppercut, the third punch in a stiff combination.  Alatorre dropped suddenly to the canvas and was unable to continue the fight.

This victory for Ortiz sets up a possible bout against former lightweight titleholder Nate Campbell on the Kahn-Malignaggi undercard in May.

Undercard Action

Ricky Lopez of Oxnard California improved his record to 7-0 with a unanimous decision against a determined Hugo Ramos 2-5-2.

Ramos immediately put Lopez on the back foot for the 4 round fight, trying to lure Lopez into a brawl.  Lopez regrouped and got back to boxing after the exciting first round and put in some good work.  Ramos was shaken in the third, but covered up and got his legs beneath him.  Ramos rallied enough over the last half of the round to take it.  In the fourth, both fighters threw caution to the wind in an exciting back and forth battle that saw both men hurt.  Both were gassed in the final minute but continued throwing, Lopez landing the better punches.

All three judges scored the fight 39-37.  The BTBC’s man in the crowd had it 38-38.

Philadelphia’s  Karl Dargan impressed the crowd as he was virtually untouchable against Jose Alfredo Lugo of Los Mochis, Mexico.  Dargan 7-0 (3) boxed at distance and put together lightning fast combinations, frequently beating his opponent to the punch.  Lugo was game, but could not find a way inside against Dargan.  At the end of the fourth, another painfully one-sided round, Dargan landed a tooth rattling straight right.  The hollow pop of fist against cheek elicited a collective sympathy groan from the crowd.  Impressively, Dargan timed this punch as Lugo was throwing one of his, landed it, and was out of the way by the time Lugo’s arrived.  Lugo retired on his stool, his record going 10-13-1 after losing his last 8.  When the fight was called off, hardcore boxing fans got to see Dargan’s trainer Naziim Richardson in the ring, big as life.

One of last year’s FNC favorites, Charles Huerta, seemed to get a hometown decision against Guadalupe De Leon, the man who beat Derrick Wilson who beat Huerta by shocking first round knockout last year.

Huerta seemed gunshy as De Leon took it to him and pushed the action and it wasn’t until the third round that Huerta woke up and decided to throw more than a punch at a time.  When Huerta decided to work, he was very accurate, but he didn’t seem to have a clue about how to deal with somebody who throws 8 punches at a time.  De Leon took it to Huerta who was successful at times with potshotting, but appeared to be overwhelmed as he went life and death in a 6 rounder.  Raul Caiz had the closest correct score at 57-57, Max DeLuca scored it 58-56, and David Denkin had it a ridiculous 59-55 for a MD win in Huerta’s favor.  The man in the crowd gave it to De Leon 58-56.

Luis Ramos and Walter Estrada felt each other out and warmed up for four rounds in a scheduled four rounder.  The most spirited exchange was after the final bell when both fighters remembered that they were not, in fact, sparring.  All three judges gave it to Ramos 40-36.  The BTBC man in the crowd decided that it would be a good time to get another drink and make a bathroom run, but may have scored it 39-37, giving the first round to Estrada for being a little bit busier.

After the main event, the crowd was treated to a performance by Candyman 187.  The Man in the Crowd didn’t bother watching this since they didn’t look like this:

The FNC structure has improved and the crowd was responsive.  The TV screens throughout the venue now show the fight as well for the instances in which the ref is blocking your view.  This also helps with a visible ring timer and between-round replays.  Somewhere up north, people were watching curling and ice skating; down in So Cal, hundreds upon hundreds of people turned up to see three hours of fighting.  Golden Boy is bringing it back to Los Angeles.

The Fight Night Club will run once a month through November.

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Katsidis-Guerrero, Maidana-Cayo Doubleheader For March 27?

by Dafs117

Boxingscene's Rick Reeno reports that HBO are structuring a doubleheader with former lightweight titlist Michael Katsidis (26-2, 21 KO) and IBF super featherweight Robert Guerrero (25-1-1, 17 KO) as the main event on March 27.

With Amir Khan "deep in negotiations" with Juan Manuel Marquez, Katsidis-Guerrero could be for the full WBO title. In the co-feature, Marcos Maidana (27-1, 26 KO) and Victor Manuel Cayo (24-0, 16 KO) will also be filling the vacancy of the WBA light welterweight title left by Khan.

I would prefer to watch Khan-Maidana and Katsidis-Marquez than Khan-Marquez, with the winners of both facing off in an elimination process (dream on). I see Khan picking off Marquez round after round, jabbing and moving with Marquez too slow to counter. Khan-Maidana would at least give us a pop to see how much Khan has developed under Freddie Roach, but if they vacate, my respect for Khan as a champion is out of the window because I see Khan beating Maidana nine times out of ten.
Marquez and Katsidis is a mismatch, but if Marquez is on the slide and suffering mentally since the battering to Floyd Mayweather, Katsidis will at least make it interesting. Katsidis-Gurrero doesn't do anything for me. I think Katsidis power is overrated at world level and who knows how Gurrero will take an extra five pounds. Maidana-Cayo is a thrilling match-up.

There have been rumors circulating that WBO titlist Timothy Bradley's promoter Gary Shaw has attempted to match his fighter up with Maidana, but nothing has come of it at late.

Any fight with Maidana is good, but a Khan-Maidana fight is the one that fans want. Another group of good fights though added to a packed autumn schedule.

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