Throwing Jabs

RECAP:

• Uriah Hall retires Anderson Silva in the 4th via TKO
  • Who is next for Hall? Can he build off this win to get in the title hunt?
• IBF and WBA bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue defends his belts via 7th round knockout over Jason Maloney.
  • Where does Inoue deserve to be on the pound for pound list?
• Gervonta Davis knocks out Leo Santa Cruz with a devastating uppercut in the 6th round.
  • Is Davis “legit”?

FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENT:

• UFC President Dana White confirms that UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya will move up to challenge for the UFC light heavyweight champion Jan Blachowicz.

WHO YOU GO?

• Who are the greatest heavyweight fighters in boxing history? Who are the 4 faces on boxing's heavyweight Mount Rushmore?
  • Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, Rocky Marciano, and Lennox Lewis

PREVIEW:

• UFC Fight Night on ESPN 2 at 10 PM: light heavyweights, #1 Thiago Santos (21-7) vs #3 Glover Teixeira (31-7)
• Live on DAZN: WBC lightweight champion Devin Haney (24-0) vs Yuriorkis Gamboa (30-3)

THE FLURRY:

RECAP:

• Gegard Mousasi reclaims the Bellator middleweight championship after defeated welterweight champion Douglas Lima via unanimous decision (48-47, 49-46, 49-46)
• Robert Whittaker defeats Jared Cannonier via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
  • How does Whittaker match-up in a rematch with Adesanya?
• Khabib Nurmagomedov defends his lightweight title against Justin Gaethje via a triangle choke submission in the 2nd round and after the fight, retires.
  • Is there a fight that can bring Khabib out of retirement? GSP?
  • Does this set up for Poirier vs McGregor in January to be for the vacate lightweight title?

CURRENT EVENTS:

• .Who you got? (2 parter)
  • Part 1: Jon Jones talking smack about UFC choosing to put Khabib at number 1 pound for pound over himself. Who is your top 5 pound for pound in the UFC?
  • 1. Khabib Nurmagomedov
  • 2. Amanda Nunes
  • 3. Jon Jones
  • 4. Stipe Miocic
  • 5. Valentina Shevchenko
  • Part 2: Who are the greatest fighters in UFC history? Who is on your 4 faces on the UFC Mount Rushmore?
  • Royce Gracie, Ronda Rousey, Anderson Silva, and Khabib Nuramgomedov

PREVIEW:

• UFC Fight Night on ESPN+ Main Card starts at 7:00 PM: middleweights, #10 Uriah Hall (15-9) vs Anderson Silva (34-10, 1 NC)
• Live from Las Vegas on ESPN+: bantamweights, IBF/WBA champion Naoya Inoue (19-0) vs Jason Maloney (21-1)
• Live from San Antonio on Showtime PPV: WBA lightweight champion Gervonta Davis (23-0) vs WBA junior lightweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (37-1-1)
• Other noteworthy fighters in action (just mentioning):
  • On the UFC Fight Night card, the co-main event Bryce Mitchell vs Andre Fili, also Greg Hardy is in action
  • WBO women’s junior lightweight champion Ewa Brodnicka vs Mikaela Mayer, the co-main event of ESPN card
  • Regis Prograis in action on Showtime PPV
  • On DAZN, heavyweight contender Oleksandr Usyk is in action, as well as, Savannah Marshall and Hannah Rankin do battle for the vacate WBO women’s middleweight title

THE FLURRY: Giving Flowers, Hugging, Crying, and Saying I Love You

RECAP:

• Brian Ortega dominates “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung in a unanimous decision victory (50-45, 50-45, 50-45)
• Teofimo Lopez shocks the world as he becomes the unified lightweight champion as he defeats Vasiliy Lomachenko via unanimous decision (119-109, 117-111, 116-112)

CURRENT EVENTS:

• .Who you got?
  • With no boxing matches to preview this weekend and a big fight shaking up the boxing world, who you got in as your top 5 pound for pound in boxing? (Next week we do top 5 pound for pound in UFC)
  • Terrence Crawford
  • Canelo
  • Tyson Fury
  • Errol Spence Jr
  • Teofimo Lopez

PREVIEW:

• UFC 254 from Fight Island, the main card starts at 2 pm EST
  • Co-main event: middleweight bout with title implications, #1 Robert Whittaker (22-5) vs #2 Jared Cannonier (13-4)
  • Main event: For the undisputed UFC lightweight championship, Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov (28-0) vs interim champion Justin Gaethje (22-2)

THE FLURRY

Scrub Scraps, Changing Minds and Changing Lives

RECAP:

• Cory Sandhagen knocks out the number one bantamweight contender Marlon Moraes in the second round
• Michael Venom Page hands Ross Houston his first loss via a unanimous decision
• Tim Johnson gets revenge for his past knock out loss against Cheick Kongo as he beats him via majority decision

CURRENT EVENTS:

• .Top Rank boxing promoter Bob Arum confirms Tyson Fury’s next fight will not be against Deontay Wilder
• UFC announces they offered the Poirier vs McGregor fight for January 23, Conor McGregor says he accepts but wants the fight at AT&T Stadium
• Fight announcement
  • Bantamweight title fight at UFC 256, Petr Yan © vs Alijamain Sterling

PREVIEW:

• On ESPN+ at 7 pm
  • Featherweights, #2 Brain Ortega (14-1) vs #4 “The Korean Zombie” Chan Sung Jung (16-5)
• On ESPN at 10 pm
  • Lightweight unification bout, WBO and WBA champion Vasiliy Lomachenko (14-1) vs IBF champion Teofimo Lopez (15-0)

THE FLURRY

RECAP:

• Former WBO junior featherweight Champion Emanuel Navarette (31-1-1) takes on Ruben Villa (18-0) for the vacant WBO featherweight title, on ESPN
• Holly Holm dominantly defeats Irene Aldana via unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 50-44)

CURRENT EVENTS:

• Jon Jones and Israel Adesanya back and forth on Twitter
  • Jones: Fighter and coach is mentioning my name in interviews but refused to sign the dotted line. Straight hoe shit. Mention a mans dead mother over the Internet but looking to fight Jared cannoneer 
  • Adesanya: Let’s see him actually stop ducking the heavyweights. I’ve set my plan in this game from the jump. No man ever forced my hand.
  • Jones: Lol If I wanted more attention, I would sign with a world-class talent agency. Maybe buy a few Ferraris and move to Miami. You’re sadly mistaken
  • Jones: Costa lost the fight the day he signed the contract to fight for the championship. His new fane defeated him before the fight even started. Kid just stood there in front of a kickboxer and showboated for the cameras. Don’t compare me to someone who’s proven nothing
  • Jones: I’ve been famous since I was 21, who gives a shit about being hot. Do you know how many hot people I’ve seen come around since I’ve been here, many. McGregor is the only fighter who inspires me on a business level everyone else I just respect as an athlete
  • Jones: What do you do when Jon Jones murders you with facts, tell a cocaine joke. Maybe it’ll distract the fans from thinking about what was actually said.
  • Adesanya: Do you dummies even know how contracts work? Some of y’all never even seen one. “SiGn dA CoNtRaKT!”
  • Adesanya: Fuck records. You should know. How many criminal records you got You’ve lost your belts how many times?
  • Jones: Lol Exactly what does this have to do with us fighting? More distractions from the actual conversation
  • Adesanya: Lol…been cock teasing heavyweight move for 7 years. He’ll never do it. He can just wait in line like the rest of them.
  • Jones: McGregor came and made Ireland look like royalty. You came and made African men look soft. Get the fuck out of here
  • Adesanya: Soft

PREVIEW:

• UFC Fight Night on ESPN at 8:00 pm
  • Main Event: Bantamweights, #1 Marlon Moraes (23-6-1) vs #4 Cory Sandhagen (12-2)
  • Co-Main Event: Featherweights, #14 Edson Barboza (20-9) vs Makwan Amirkhani (16-4)
• Bellator 248 on CBS Sports Network at 11:30 am
  • Main Event: Welterweights, Michael Venom Page (17-1) vs Ross Houston (8-0)
• Bellator Euro Series 10 on CBS Sports Network at 5:00 pm
  • Main Event: Heavyweights, Cheick Kongo (30-10-2) vs Tim Johnson (14-6)

THE FLURRY

Throwing Jabs Episode 20
@ThrowingJabs on Twitter and Throwing Jabs Podcast on Facebook

Review
Ryan Garcia Kos Francisco Fonseca in 1st
Time to step up kid
20-0 17Kos-Oscar de la Hoyas boy has a devastating left hook., retained WBC Silver Lightweight title.

Jorge Liares looked great with 4th rd ko of Carlos Morales.
Had struggled after a 13 win fight streak and a first round TKO at the hands of Pablo Cesar Cano last January for the WBC International silver super lite weight.. back to back wins for Liares.

Next opponent for Garcia? Or Devin Haney? Haney confronted Bernard Hopkins backstage after Garcia’s win.. WBC Emeritus Champion Haney and his dad Bill pressed Hopkins on a fight with Ryan Garcia.

Caleb Plant does his job vs Vincent Feigenbutz
Super Middleweight World Champion Caleb Plant put on a show in his hometown of Nashville—defending his IBF 168-pound with a 10th-round TKO of Germany's Vincent Feigenbutz on PBC on FOX
You’re 27, in your prime, and undefeated, fight someone inside the top 30 champ
Blessed with quick hands and fast feet, Tennessee native Caleb Plant has worked his way from a top rising prospect to a 168-pound world champion.

News
GGG calf injury
Middleweight world titleholder Gennadiy Golovkin has suffered a right calf injury that is likely to once again push back his mandatory defense against Kamil Szeremeta.
Golovkin and his team have filed for an extension with the IBF, and the fight now will likely take place in May or June, sources said.
Previously, Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn told ESPN last week that the fight, which initially had been planned for Feb. 29 before being moved back for various reasons to March 28, likely wouldn't happen until at least April.
A DAZN spokesperson confirmed the promotion is looking at new dates for the fight. Are his best days behind him?
Canelo? Plant says Oscars offer was bunk
With Golden Boy promoter Oscar De La Hoya still on the hunt to finalize Canelo Alvarez’s next opponent in May, one person it apparently won’t be is 168lb titleholder Caleb Plant. Plant, who just recently won handily, recently said he’s not too interested in taking a Canelo fight at this time, saying he would have to compromise himself by taking the fight on short notice.
Well according to De La Hoya, he has no idea what Plant is talking about since there’s still plenty of time for a full training camp before May 2. Either way, De La Hoya says the ship has sailed on Plant, who will never get another chance to fight the Mexican star.

Preview
Mikey Garcia vs Jessie Vargas Feb. 29
Former four-division world titleholder Mikey Garcia will return to the ring to face former two-division titlist Jessie Vargas, Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn made official on Wednesday.
The fight had been rumored for weeks, and on Sunday it became clearer it would happen when Garcia announced on his 32nd birthday that he had signed with Hearn, who also promotes Vargas, and would fight on Feb. 29 (DAZN).
The 12-round welterweight fight will take place at the Ford Center at The Star, the training facility of the Dallas Cowboys, in Frisco, Texas, which has hosted only three previous boxing events.
Garcia (39-1, 30 KOs), of Moreno Valley, California, who has won world titles at featherweight, junior lightweight, lightweight and junior welterweight, will fight not far from where he had his previous bout and most disappointing performance. That was on March 16 at AT&T Stadium, the home of the Cowboys, in Arlington, Texas, where he jumped up two weight classes to challenge the much bigger welterweight world titleholder Errol Spence Jr. and lost a shutout decision before a crowd of 47,525 in the main event of the first-ever Fox Sports pay-per-view card.
Vargas (29-2-2, 11 KOs), 30, of Las Vegas, who has won belts at junior welterweight and welterweight, fought to back-to-back draws in 2018 against Adrien Broner and Thomas Dulorme before knocking out former lightweight titlist Humberto Soto in the sixth round on April 26.
Vargas faced Soto at 150 pounds in what he thought would be his first fight on his way to being a full-fledged 154-pound junior middleweight. But the lure of a fight with a major name in Garcia convinced him to fight another 147-pound bout.

FURY WILDER 2
This weekend, the boxing world turns it's eyes to Las Vegas for a rematch with the unbeaten WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder (42-0-1, 41 KOs), whom he fought to a controversial draw in December 2018, live on FOX and ESPN+ pay-per-view.

Fury (29-0-1, 20 KOs) is the undefeated former unified WBA (Super), IBF, WBO, IBO, The Ring, and lineal champion, who was stripped of his titles and charged with anti-doping violations.

They will fight for the WBC and vacant The Ring, and lineal heavyweight titles on Saturday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Paradise, Nevada.

The first fight was a draw. One card was 113-113, from judge Phil Edwards, with Fury docked the two points for knockdowns that otherwise would have given him a win. One card was 114-112 for Fury, eight to four in his favor in terms of rounds scored; even counting the knockdowns, judge Robert Tapper felt Fury had done enough to win. And then there was judge Alejandro Rochin, who broke from the pack and score the fight 115-111 Wilder. He was one of a brave and hearty few who felt that Wilder deserved the victory even without the knockdowns.

The fight, which sold about 325,000 on pay-per-view, became one of the most talked-about fights of the decade after the fight. There was plenty of conversation about the scoring, about Fury’s insane ability to recover from that 12th round knockdown (which became a meme, something pretty much unheard of in boxing), about Wilder’s power, and about how dramatic the fight had been.

Contrasting styles, Contrasting camps, Contrasting personalities, but the one thing Wilder and Fury have in common is their ambition to be the best in the world.

THE AFTERMATH
When the WBC ordered a rematch in early 2019, Fury did something Tyson Fury has often done: he zagged on ‘em, turning it down and instead signing with Top Rank, while promising he would eventually fight Wilder again. Wilder, of course, took it as an opportunity to say that Fury ducked the rematch, but he also routinely guaranteed the rematch would happen in time.

Instead of fighting one another last year, Wilder and Fury scored a couple of wins. Wilder knocked out Dominic Breazeale and Luis Ortiz, while Fury rampaged over Tom Schwarz and then had some real struggles with Otto Wallin.

Fury’s purpose in signing with Top Rank and ESPN was to become a bigger name with the American public. Certainly, Fury is a bigger name now than he was a year ago, but Wilder is still the star.

FURRY NEARLY KILLED HIMSELF
Paris Fury remembers her husband, Tyson, getting into his sports car after telling her, “I’m not coming back.” Then there was the sound of an engine accelerating almost violently as he sped away. He wanted to kill himself.

He planned to crash his car into a nearby bridge. He drove faster and faster toward that destination. Meanwhile, even as he drove, Paris was frantically trying to locate him. He had turned is phone off. She called his father and his brother, and they didn’t know where he was, either.

But then, he says, an inner voice told him: “You don’t want to do this.” He pulled off to the side of the road as his inner voice’ persisted: “You don’t want to do this. If you do, you will destroy your wife, your kids, your family.”

Since winning his title, the invisible demons within him were trying to take his soul. Depression is like that. He began to drink every day. He used recreational drugs to excess. His weight ballooned to 400 pou...

Recap: 

• JACE: Anthony Joshua has regained his WBO, IBF, and WBA heavyweight titles as he outclassed Andy Ruiz Jr winning via unanimous decision (119-109, 118-110 x2).
  • Andy Ruis tells ESPN after the fight, “Being bigger and heavier, I thought was going to benefit me. It didn't. Being overweight, I thought I was going to be stronger. I should have trained harder and listened to my team.”
  • What is next for Anthony Joshua? Rematch? Usyk? Fury vs Wilder 2 winner?
• JARED: Jermall Charlo finishes Dennis Hogan in the 7th round to retain his WBC middleweight title?
  • What is next for Jermall Charlo? Chris Eubanks Jr? Andrade? GGG? Canelo?

Preview: 

• JACE: On ESPN Saturday night at MSG, Terence “Bud” Crawford looks to defend his WBO welterweight WBO championship against Egidjus Kavaliauskas (21-0-1).
  • In the co-main event, the undefeated lightweight up and comer Teofimo Lopez challenges Richard Commey for the IBF lightweight title

Flurry:

Recap:

• JACE: Deontay Wilder viciously knocks out Luis Ortiz in the 7th round to retain his WBC heavyweight title.

Current Events:

• JARED: Wilder vs Fury 2 is official for February 22nd contracts are signed, however the venue is not yet finalized
• JACE: Floyd Mayweather goes to Instagram where he posted a picture and the caption read, “Coming out of retirement in 2020”
  • Also posted on Instagram are pictures of him and UFC President Dana White at a Boston Celtics game, leading to rumors that Mayweather will fight 2 fights one in MMA and one with Zuffa boxing.
  • When asked about this Canelo said, “Mayweather doesn’t want to fight me; he’ll face an MMA fighter.”

Preview:

• JARED: December 7th on DAZN live from Saudi Arabia, Anthony Joshua looks to gain his heavyweight titles back from the man that stole them from him in June, the reigning WBO, IBF, and WBA heavyweight champion Andy Ruiz Jr.
• JACE: That same night Showtime delivers a stacked card from New York, as Jermall Charlo puts his WBC middleweight title on the line against Dennis Hogan
  • In the co-main event Chris Eubanks Jr. and Matt Korobox fight for the interim WBA middleweight strap
  • Also on this card; Marlon Tapales vs Ryosuke Iwasa for the interim IBF junior featherweight title and Louisa Hawton vs Lorraine Villalobos for the interim WBC women’s strawweight title
• JACE: Other notable fights
  • On ESPN+ Emanuel Navarrete vs. Francisco Horta for Navarrete's WBO junior featherweight title
    • In the co-main event, Jerwin Ancajas vs. Miguel Gonzalez for Ancajas' IBF junior bantamweight title

Recap:

• WBO super middleweight Champion Billy Joe Saunders knocks out Marcelo Esteban Coceres in the 11th round to retain his title
• Devin Haney retains his WBC lightweight title via unanimous decision, all judges scoring the bout 120-107, over Alfredo Santiago

Current Events:

• Logan Paul vs KSI drew 10,000 viewers from the US, and 10,000 from the UK
• Tyson Fury returns to WWE TV, and teases a change to MMA
  • UFC heavyweight Champ Stipe Miocic calls for boxing match with Fury
• UFC BMF Champion Jorge Masvidal wants to box Canelo
• Ruiz vs Joshua 2 fight purses have come out, Andy Ruiz is guaranteed to make 13M, Anthony Joshua is guaranteed to make 85M and Eddie Hearn and Matchroom Boxing is set to make 20M

Preview:

• From Las Vegas live on Fox PPV, WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder defends his title in a rematch with Luis Ortiz
  • In the co-main event Leo Santa Cruz and Miguel Flores do battle for the vacant WBA junior lightweight title
  • Also on the card Julio Ceja challenges WBA “regular” junior featherweight champion Brandon Figueroa
• Other notable fight:
  • Callum Smith vs John Ryder for Smith WBA super middleweight title on DAZN
  • Andrew Cancio vs Rene Alvarado for Cancio’s WBA “regular” junior lightweight title