Big KOs highlight a busy Saturday

Commey wins; Diaz, Rakhimov draw, Lara shocks Warrington

Saturday was a busy one for boxing with three notable cards, so let’s take a look.

I spent my evening covering the Top Rank Boxing on ESPN card for The Ring magazine website. In the main event of the show, which replaced the postponed Joe Smith Jr.-Maxim Vlasov light heavyweight title bout on Thursday, former lightweight world titlist Richard Commey, fighting for the first time since Teofimo Lopez Jr. took his belt 14 months ago, met fellow contender Jackson Marinez.

Commey took a few rounds to get going and eventually blasted Marinez with right hands for a vey impressive sixth-round knockout victory inside the bubble of the conference center at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

It was the kind of explosive victory that should quickly return Commey to a more notable fight. You can read my account of the bout here: https://www.ringtv.com/617650-richard-commey-bounces-back-with-sixth-round-knockout-of-jackson-marinez/

I also wrote about the entire undercard, which was highlighted by Adam Lopez notching a majority decision win over former world title challenger Jason Sanchez in an entertaining scrap and 21-year-old blue chip heavyweight prospect Jared Anderson scoring a thunderous one-punch knockout of Kingsley Ibeh, who was easily Anderson’s toughest opponent so far. You can read my undercard story here: https://www.ringtv.com/617639-adam-lopez-wins-entertaining-majority-decision-over-jason-sanchez/

Diaz-Rakhimov fight to draw

Joseph Diaz Jr., stripped of his junior lightweight world title ahead of his first defense because he was 3.6 pounds over the 130-pound limit at Friday’s weigh-in, fought to a majority draw with mandatory challenger Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov in the main event of the Golden Boy card on DAZN on Saturday night at the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio, California.

One judge scored the fight 115-113 for Diaz (31-1-1, 15 KOs), 28, of South El Monte, California, but the other two each had it 114-114.

“I’m a little upset. I felt I had done enough to win the fight,” said Diaz, who was fined 20 percent ($100,000) of his $500,000 purse for being overweight. “It was a close fight. It wasn’t my best performance. I didn’t make weight. I lost the belt on the scales. I want to apologize to everyone. I want to apologize to all my fans. It was a mistake on my behalf. No excuses, but I’ll be back. Rakhimov threw a lot of combinations. But a lot of them landed on the gloves. I felt I threw more shots and landed more body punches. I thought I should have won the fight.”

Rakhimov (15-0-1, 12 KOs), 26, a Tajikistan native fighting out of Russia, would have claimed the belt with a win and thought he deserved it.

“I did everything I was supposed to do,” Rakhimov said through a translator. “Victory was on my side. I feel I won the fight. There were a few mistakes, and we need to work on it. I did everything that was possible. There were a few mistakes, but I will work on that. There is no perfect boxer, and I hope to gain more American fans.”

In the co-feature, Brian Castano (17-0-1, 12 KOs), 31, the mandatory challenger, cruised to a shockingly one-sided decision over Patrick Teixeira (31-2, 22 KOs), 30, a southpaw from Brazil, to take his junior middleweight world title.

Teixeira, who making his first defense, and Castano are friendly with each other from their times sparring together. On paper it figured to be a competitive bout but Castano dominated, winning with ease -- 120-108, 119-109 and 117-111 – against Teixeira, who simply had no answers for anything Castano threw at him.

“I am very happy. We did a great job with my team,” Castano said. “It was a good fight. We all make mistakes, and I have to fix things here and there, but a fight is a fight. Each fight is different, and I understand that. I knew Teixeira very well going into this fight. He is very strong, and he has a lot of heart. He is a great. This was one of the greatest victories of my career.”

Castano is with Premier Boxing Champions as is three-belt unified 154-pound world champion Jermell Charlo (34-1, 18 KOs), which means an undisputed world title fight would not be difficult to make if both fighters want it.

Lara destroys Warrington

In the shocker of the weekend, unheralded Mauricio Lara scored a savage ninth-round knockout of former featherweight world titlist Josh Warrington in a huge upset on Saturday at the SSE Arena, Wembley in London.

Warrington, viewed by many as the No. 1 featherweight in the world, had recently given up his word title to face Lara in the previously arranged bout rather than abide by the outcome of a $50,000 purse bid for a mandatory defense he had no interest in against Kid Galahad, whom he had already beaten.

Lara (22-2, 15 KOs), 22, of Mexico, title or not at stake, came in hungry and eager to prove himself against Warrington (30-1, 7 KOs), 30, of England, who was fighting for the first time in 16 months.

Warrington outboxed Lara for the first three rounds but the fight ended for all intents and purposes in the fourth round when Lara rocked Warrington with a hook left from which he never recovered. Moments later, under a hail of shots, Lara dropped Warrington, who was all but out. He managed to beat the count and survive the last few seconds of the round but he was never the same. The fight could have easily been stopped at any point after the knockdown.

Lara dished out considerable punishment until finally finishing the unsteady Warrington in the ninth round, in which he continued to pound him with left hooks before sending him back to the canvas on yet another left hook. Referee Howard Foster waved it off without a count at 54 seconds.

“The reason I performed so well is because of the support of my family,” said Lara, who was boxing outside of Mexico for the second and time and facing his first name opponent. “I think Josh Warrington needed to know that this fight wasn’t going to be easy. He shouldn’t have been making plans for future fights. I am extremely happy at the moment.

”We just had to take our time and wait. He was a great champion. That’s why he continued to fight on and be strong and have good heart. I didn’t want to tire myself out too much. I had to take it round by round and wait for that final blow when it came in the ninth. We were very confident in our team in what we could do. Of course, there is a surprise when it actually comes off. We’re happy with our performance. I know I am heavy-handed and that’s what showed during the fight. I’m really, really happy. I’m crazy happy.

Commey-Marinez photo: Mikey Williams/Top Rank; Diaz-Rakhimov photo: Tom Hogan/Golden Boy; Warrington-Lara photo: Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing