Notebook: Heavyweight Ajagba blasts out Martin in Zuffa headliner
After Usyk optional defense, WBC will mandate Kabayel; interviews with Barrios, Hitchins; Nishida wins 122 eliminator; Golden Boy's March 14 show off due to Ortiz litigation; Quick hits; Show & tell
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Heavyweight contender Efe Ajgaba had been touched several times by the potent left hand of southpaw Charles Martin, was being outboxed, and had lost the first two rounds on all three scorecards.
But Ajagba, like anyone else familiar with him, knew he only needed to land one shot to change the fight and that is just what he did.
Ajagba remained poised and calm and then landed his vaunted right hand in the third round for a knockdown. He connected with another one in the fourth round for another knockdown and then finished Martin during the follow-up assault later in the round to win the main event of Zuffa Boxing 03 on Sunday night at the Meta Apex in Las Vegas.
“I’m ready for everyone in the top 10. But nobody is mentioning my name,” Ajagba said. “Nobody’s calling my name. I’m top 10. I’m ready to go. I want to fight (opponents in) the top 10, top five. I put the heavyweight division on notice. I’m not running. You got to step in the ring with me now.”
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St. Louis native, Las Vegas-based Martin (30-5-1, 27 KOs), 39, who briefly held the IBF world title for three months in 2016 before losing it by second-round knockout to Anthony Joshua, looked good early as he landed quick straight left hands to take early control.
But Ajagba (21-1-1, 14 KOs), 31, a Nigeria native fighting out of Stafford, Texas, got in a hard right just before the bell ended the first round.
Ajagba, who was coming off a draw with Martin Bakole last May in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, landed his right hand more cleanly with about a minute left in the third round to knock Martin down. Ajagba followed with lefts and an overhand right that had Martin wobbly-legged.
When Martin’s mouthpiece came out during the assault, referee Thomas Taylor called timeout to replace it, buying Martin some recovery time even though his legs were still a mess when the round ended.
Ajagba patiently stalked him in the fourth round and when he landed a hard right hand to the head he put Martin on his back about 40 seconds into the round.
Martin, who had not fought for 15 months, beat the count but it was just a matter of time until Ajagba finished him. He nailed him with a series of shots that sent Martin into the ropes and followed with left and a right that badly shook him and caused Taylor to step in at 1 minute, 11 seconds.
“I don’t feel his power but he has a lot of experience. He was very sharp,” said Ajagba, who dedicated the win to his father, who recently died. “(The win) means a lot to me. My dad is up there; he’s watching me. He’s part of me.”
In the light heavyweight co-feature, Umar Dzambekov (14-0, 10 KOs), 28, a southpaw from Austria, scored an early knockout of the year contender.
After handily outboxing Las Vegas-based Egypt native Ahmed Elbiali (24-2, 19 KOs), 35, in the first round and during the second round, Dzambekov spectacularly knocked out him out at 57 seconds of the second, flattening him with a massive right uppercut.
Hitchins interview
On the latest podcast episode, I interviewed IBF junior welterweight titleholder Richardson Hitchins ahead of his title defense against Oscar Duarte in the Mario Barrios-Ryan Garcia co-feature on The Ring magazine DAZN PPV card on Saturday in Las Vegas. We discussed his stellar performance in his first defense against George Kambosos Jr. and the pressure to be crowd pleasing; the disappointment of fighting just once in 2025; being moved from the Jan. 31 Teofimo Lopez-Shakur Stevenson undercard to Barrios-Garcia; thoughts on what Duarte presents; the landscape of his hot division and the fights he would like in the future; his dislike of the IBF weight check on the morning of the fight; an eventual move to welterweight; and more.
Listen to the episode! Also: rate, review, subscribe and enjoy!
WBC mandates Usyk-Kabayel
While lineal and three-belt unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk is permitted an optional defense in his next fight, plans for which are not determined, WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman said after that he will be ordered to face WBC interim titlist Agit Kabayel in a mandatory defense.
“Kabayel was not available because he had a fight scheduled in January,” Sulaiman said in an interview with DAZN’s Chris Mannix. “So (Usyk) requested a voluntary title defense which is very customary. He was given that opportunity and he must fight the interim champion next. That’s the ruling.”
Kabayel (27-0, 19 KOs), 33, knocked out Zhilei Zhang in the sixth round last February to win the vacant interim belt and made his first defense in a German homecoming fight by third-round knockout of Damian Knyba on Jan. 10.
Usyk (24-0, 15 KO), 39, of Ukraine, last fought in July, when he destroyed Daniel Dubois in a one-sided fifth-round knockout in their rematch to regain the IBF title and become the undisputed heavyweight champion for the second time. He recently vacated the WBO belt.
Barrios interview
I interviewed Mario Barrios ahead of his WBC welterweight title defense against Ryan Garcia, which headlines The Ring magazine DAZN PPV card on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. We discussed his draw with Manny Pacquiao in his last fight; his thoughts on the inconsistent Garcia and whether he is a worthy title challenger; the importance of drug testing for the fight given Garcia’s failed tests and suspension related to his 2024 no contest with Devin Haney; working with new trainer Joe Goossen, Garcia’s former trainer; the welterweight division overall and the fights he’d like in the future; and more. Check out the video here and subscribe to our YouTube channel:
Douglas-Tyson anniversary
The 36th anniversary of Buster Douglas’ monumental 10th-round upset knockout of Mike Tyson to win the undisputed heavyweight title was on Wednesday. TJ and I discussed our memories of our reactions to the unthinkable result. Check out the video and subscribe to our YouTube channel here:
Quick hits
Former IBF bantamweight titlist Ryosuke Nishida (11-1, 2 KOs), 29, a Japanese southpaw, moved up to junior featherweight and won a seventh-round technical decision against Bryan Mercado (32-2, 26 KOs), 30, of Mexico, in an IBF title eliminator in the headliner of a Muto Promotions card on Sunday at Sumiyoshi SportsCenter in Osaka, Japan, Nishida’s hometown. Nishida, who was coming off a sixth-round knockout loss that cost him his title against Junto Nakatani in a WBC/IBF unification fight on June 8, won 69-64 on all three scorecards to become one of the mandatory challengers for undisputed champion Naoya Inoue. Referee Nobuto Ikehara halted the bout at 2 minutes, 53 second of the seventh round after Nishida suffered a deep gash over his left eye from an accidental head butt.
Russian southpaw Vartan Arutyunyan (12-0, 8 KOs), 26, a southpaw, stopped countryman Georgiy Yunovidov (11-2, 7 KOs), 33, in the sixth round to win the vacant WBA interim bridgerweight title in the main event of an RCC Boxing card on Saturday at Traktor Sport Palace in Chelyabinsk, Russia. Yunovidov was making his first defense of the interim 224-pound belt. Arutyunyan takes over as the mandatory challenger for full titlist Muslim Gadzhimagomedov. In the co-feature, Elnur Samedov (22-2, 11 KOs), 32, a southpaw from Azerbaijan living in Russian, knocked out Colombia’s John Lenon Gutierrez (11-1, 7 KOs), 31, in the 11th round to win the vacant WBA interim junior lightweight belt.
Golden Boy’s plans for a DAZN card on March 14 at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California, are on hold, according to sources. Golden Boy, whose deal with DAZN has expired, has been negotiating a new one. But because it has been unable to deliver Vergil Ortiz Jr.-Jaron “Boots” Ennis to DAZN and is now in litigation with Ortiz and manager Rick Mirigian, any plans for Golden Boy cards on DAZN are in limbo. Had the card been announced as planned in recent days, it would have been headlined by a welterweight bout between Arnold Barboza Jr. against Kenneth Sims Jr. and included a three-belt strawweight unification fight between WBO/WBA champion Oscar Collazo and WBC titlist Melvin Jerusalem and women’s undisputed flyweight champion Gabriela Fundora’s defense against Viviana Ruiz Corredor.
Junior middleweights Brandon Adams (26-4, 16 KOs), 36, of Watts, California, and Caoimhin Agyarko (18-0, 7 KOs), 29, of Belfast, Northern Ireland, will meet in an IBF junior middleweight title eliminator on April 11 on a DMG card at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, organizers announced on Saturday. The winner will become mandatory for newly crowned 154-pound titlist Josh Kelly.
There are two new Zuffa Boxing dates to add to the calendar. It will have shows on April 5 and May 10, although the location and lineup of bouts have not been announced.
Show and tell
Muhammad Ali was still undisputed heavyweight champion but he was getting on in years and slowing down. Still, there was no reason for anyone to give young Leon Spinks a chance to beat him. Although Spinks had won a 1976 Olympic gold medal two years earlier, he was only 6-0-1 and not considered a formidable opponent when he was matched with Ali, the 10-to-1 favorite, at the Las Vegas Hilton.
Ali-Spinks I aired live on CBS and drew an audience of more than 70 million, which saw the more aggressive and accurate Spinks take it to Ali throughout the bout and win a 15-round split decision to take the title in a massive upset and become the least experienced fighter to win the heavyweight title. Spinks became an overnight sensation and, all said and done, a one-hit wonder. The Ring magazine picked it as fight of the year and the 15th round as round of the year. The fight took place on Feb. 15, 1978 — 48 years ago on Sunday. Here is a mint program in my collection.
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Ajagba-Martin photos: Zuffa Boxing
As a long time subscriber, I hope the Vergil/Boots/GBP/DAZN thing works out. GBP's cards are almost always entertaining. And DAZN is going to need that stable to fill out their promise of monthly PPV worthy cards for the "Ultimate" subs. Which has been a really good deal for me so far.
Hi, Dan... long time admirer of your work. I've a question you may have been asked before, but would like to read the answer all the same: if you decided to start the DRBF - Dan Rafael Boxing Federation - in an effort to show how the IBF, IBO, WBA, WBC, WBF, WBO, WBU and the EIEIO for that matter "how it's supposed to be done?" What would be the DRBF's primary rules? How would YOUR perfect sanctioning body be operated?