Weekend Recap: Nathan Heaney and Diego Pacheco Shine on Saturday
On the busiest midweek of boxing that we have had in my boxing life memory, also produced a very entertaining weekend of boxing!! One exciting card in the UK and another in the US.
The action kicked off in the UK, and we got a pretty good candidate for upset of the year as 34-year-old Staffordshire, UK called Nathan Heaney upset Denzel Washington. Washington was coming off a career-best performance, a 1st round KO of Keiran Smith back in April. After a competitive first half of the fight that saw Heaney behind but very much in the fight, he really started to pick up the pace, and it caused a memorable slugfest in the eight that started getting people thinking, "Upset alert!" The high-paced action kept up. Going into the championship rounds, Heaney really started leaning in and finished with a 30-second rally that seemed to seal the deal for the Staffordshire native, and the judges concurred. Heaney took a Majority decision by scores of 117-111,116-113, and 114-114 even, on the third card. Heaney moves to 18-0 (6).
In the co-main, in a battle of the little men, Nick Ball came up big and established himself as a legitimate world title contender by outlasting former 122-pound world champ Isaac Dogboe. The fighters often looked like a mirror image. In the third round, a questionable knockdown was ruled a slip. It was a 50/50 call, which went in favor of the British Ball, who took full advantage and seized control of the fight, working and outlanding the former World champion. Dogboe had moments and was tough, but struggled to stay competitive in a fight that Ball was winning rounds wider and wider as they went on. Ball scored a knockdown of his own in the fourth, and by the final few rounds, Dogboe was fighting as hard as he could but was clearly fading as Ball began punching Dogboe and removing any questions as he rolled to a wide UD by scores of 19-0 (11) and Dogboe fell tell 24-34 (15).
In a thrilling fight between two undefeated superbantamweights, Liam Davies got up off the canvas after he and Vincenzo La Femina traded third-round knockdowns and seized control of the fight. A third and final knockdown occurred late in the fourth as Davies caught the Italian with a quick left hook. The knockdown was the writing on the wall, and the onslaught was on. The Brit drove La Femina into the ropes and unleashed a whirlwind of powerful and accurate shots that left him defenseless as the referee stepped in and stopped the fight at the 2:50 mark. Davies moved his record to 15-0 (7).
In the US, the action was just as hot as undefeated Super Middleweight prospect Diego Pacheco remained just that, an undefeated prospect as he stopped the determined and skilled Argentine contender Marcelo Coceres. Unbeaten WBO #3, IBF #5, WBC #6, WBA #8 super middleweight Diego Pacheco (20-0, 17 KOs) scored a show stopping ninth-round knockout at the Youtube Theatre in Inglewood, California. Coceres often had much resistance and had people wondering in upset was in the air through eight. However, Pacheo closed the show in the ninth. Pacheco scored with a perfect uppercut that put Coceres down. The Argentine looked up at the ref and opted not to get up. The official time was 2:53 of round number nine.
Longshot bantamweight challenger Jonathan Rodriguez,17-1-1, (7) scored a shocking first-round TKO over former world champion Kal Yafai to claim the vacant WBA Intercontinental title. Rodriguez dropped Yafai twice including once less than a minute into the opening stanza. The barrage was relentless as Yafai was defenseless. The official time came at 2:17 of the opening round.
In his first ten-rounder, unbeaten lightweight Marc Castro looked pretty good in moving to 11-0 (8). He stopped a tough-as-nails Gonzalo Fuenzalida in the scoring with a barrage of power shots that landed with varying degrees of accuracy however, it forced the referee in for the mercy stoppage at 2:31 of the seventh round.
