Month: July 2024

The last time I covered a live boxing event it was back in January 2020 and was the only event any Ring Gang Radio member would attend that year because the world changed significantly after Jake Paul’s first professional fight. Hopefully no pandemic is on the horizon at the moment. Well, lets get to the night of fights and my reintroduction to covering boxing events. The night started off chaotic because due to unforeseen circumstances, I reached the James L Knight center late. From there I proceeded with the wild goose chase to get my credentials. After speaking with a half dozen people and searching several corridors and rooms, I was finally able to locate the space allocated for Top Rank. I picked up my credential and now I’m official.

I arrived at my seat midway through the 5th round of the Elvis Rodriguez vs Jino Rodrigo bout around 8:47pm.

6th Round – Elvis controls the round with pressure and a jab. Rodrigo landed a good body shot.

7th Round – Rodrigo is now stalking Elvis and lands lots of body shots in the beginning. They proceed to get into more exchanges where lots of hooks are landed upstairs and downstairs from both fighters.

8th Round – This round is a bit more chippy as Elvis manages to buzz Rodrigo a few times with well placed hooks while forcing exchanges.

9th Round – Both boxers have been trading rounds with aggression. They clinch more in this round than the previous ones. Elvis manages to find a home for the straight left now.

10th Round – More exchanges happen between both combatants. They clinch as they get tired and the exchanges become more sporadic. Elvis gets buzzed and slightly hurt during this round.

Verdict – Elvis wins a unanimous decision, but didn’t look as dominant as the scores indicated. Keep in mind I only saw half the fight.

Emilliano Fernando Vargas vs Jose Zaragoza

1st Round – Vargas starts off pressure boxing and scores a mean knockdown with a big right hand. Zaragoza gets up and proceeds to get pummeled for another 20 seconds until the referee mercifully stops it. Great performance from Vargas. That young man is going places.

Nico Ali Walsh vs Sona Akale 2

1st Round – Ali is out for blood in the highly anticipated rematch and starts off aggressive. He lands several heavy right hands. One stuns Akale who only managed to land some decent jabs during the round.

2nd Round – Ali boxes more and relents on the pressure. Akale does a good job of controlling the round with jabs to the body. This round was closer due to Ali being on the back-foot more and creating less exchanges.

3rd Round – So far, Ali’s defense seems better than it was for the first fight. This is probably because he’s trying to box more. Akale is struggling to get consistent offense going while Ali lands the jab. Akale finally lands a hard right hand that rocks and sends Ali into a corner. The crowd erupts when they start trading and Ali scores a big knockdown with a nice right hand.

4th Round – Akale increases the pressure and lands a couple of hard right hands on Ali who is now running away from his opponent instead of boxing. Akale continues to chase Ali to the ropes where Ali valiantly fights back to stifle the offense of his opponent to no avail.

5th Round – Ali continues to get worked on the ropes all while Akale manages to find a home for his overhand right. He lands this punch almost at will and begins to hurt Ali more often now, especially in the last 30 seconds of the round.

6th Round – Ali starts to box again on the move, He starts pushing his right hand due to being exhausted. He looks like he hurt his shoulder and starts to move even more while Akale continues to work the body. Although, Akale batters Ali around the ring for the final round, he never hurts him as badly as he did in the previous round.

Verdict – Ali wins a controversial unanimous decision and is met by a symphony of boos from everyone in attendance. Everyone in the theater was in shock as they heard the decision. Ali showed grit, but still came up short against Akale who improved his punching technique from the first fight. Lucky for him, the official judges saw it differently.

Brandon Lee Benitez vs Robeisy Ramirez

1st Round – Ramirez controlled the round with his jab. Neither landed much,but Ramirez stayed in control as the ring general.

2nd Round – Benitez is following Ramirez, but not throwing much. Ramirez finally connects with a big straight left. Benitez starts getting a little more consistent and begins to target the body. Ramirez stalks behind a jab and gets more offensive, finishing the round with a hard left to the body.

3rd Round – Benitez ups the pressure and pays for with combinations an aggression from Ramirez who is starting to have his way offensively. He lands body and head combos on Benitez repeatedly.

4th Round – Benitez finally gets his offense going consistently by body punching. Unfortunately, Ramirez is making him pay for it every step of the way. Ramirez is moving around more while still landing hard shots.

5th Round – Ramirez picking his shots while Benitez tries to hang tough while still coming forward. Ramirez buzzed Benitez during this round as well.

6th Round – The pace has slowed down, but Ramirez continues to dominate by landing hard counters. Benitez is still landing the occasional hard body shot.

7th Round – Benitez is still applying pressure and landing body shot combos. He doesn’t seem to be discouraged by the hard punching Ramirez who starts to take a breather during this round. After a quick break, he turns it up again and starts landing a vicious succession of punches. Ramirez scores a double uppercut brutal knockdown. The crowd goes wild. Great showing by Ramirez.

Steve Claggett vs Teofimo Lopez

1st Round – We now reach the main event of tonight’s broadcast. Claggett starts off fast with the pressure. Teofimo gets caught with some jabs, but responds with hard counter punches. Very competitive round.

2nd Round – Claggett gets Teofimo to move backwards quickly due to his unrelenting pressure, but Teofimo responds with some nice counters to the body and the head. Teofimo’s defense is leaving a lot to be desired as Claggett opens up more offensively.

3rd Round – At this point, Teofimo is going life and death with Claggett as they repeatedly exchange punches with each other. Teofimo’s only saving grace is that his punches are more impactful.

4th Round – Teofimo continues to land quality punches, but they come one at a time and in between Claggett’s spirited rallies. Teofimo continues to give up ground and go to the ropes while Claggett marches forward, the least bit discouraged.

5th Round – Although during certain exchanges Claggett appears to be getting dog walked, he is tough and continues to make Teofimo back up who responds with some hard uppercuts. Claggett answers back with triple jabs every time Teofimo manages to get the better of the exchanges.

6th Round – Both boxers are throwing much more than before. Claggett increased his work rate, but still not landing as much as Teofimo who tees off on certain shots. The damage from Claggetts jabs are starting to show on Teofimo’s face. This was another competitive round.

7th Round – Teofimo is continuing to struggle with controlling the ring as he’s repeatedly forced to the ropes. For every hard punch he lands, he eats three Claggett jabs in return. Claggett even manages to land some chopping right hands on the inside and is having one of his better rounds. Teofimo bounces back towards the end of the round by unleashing a heavy barrage of punches on Claggett.

8th Round – Teofimo begins the round eating more jabs and the fight is now getting repetitive at this point. Teofimo must have noticed the disinterest in the crowd because he turns everything around halfway into the round and stuns Claggett badly, almost stopping him on the ropes. Claggett survives this rough spot and Teo has his most dominant round in the fight.

9th Round – Teofimo finally has full control of the ring and looked as if he caught his second wind offensively.

10th Round – Teofimo is dominating now and has tamed the game Claggett who hasn’t completely given up yet. Claggett hasn’t landed anything significant in a while and gets hurt again by Teofimo with a hard combination.

11th Round – Claggett tries to stage a late fight comeback and keeps Teofimo on the ropes. Teofimo is still landing hard punches, just not as frequently as before. This is probably the closest round since Claggett got hurt badly in the 8th.

12th Round – Teofimo power boxes through the final round, but still gets tagged a lot by Claggett who’s pressure went up a notch. Both fighters exchange blows until the final bell.

Verdict – Teofimo Lopez wins a wide unanimous decision, but is was far from an easy night of work. His face wore the wounds of someone who had a 12 round war and not a lop-sided decision. Teofimo made the fight much harder than it needed to be, but the fans didn’t mind the fun scrap between the two.

All in all, this was a pretty entertaining night of fights presented by Top Rank and ESPN. The card’s pace flowed pretty quickly and the fans were able to get some brutal knockouts along with some spirited combat. What more could you ask for? Hopefully, It won’t take another 4 years to cover a fight, but we’ll see.